02/09/2016
NEWS STORY
Nico Rosberg topped the morning session with Lewis Hamilton in P2. Lewis Hamilton then set the fastest time of the day in the afternoon session, Nico Rosberg was second fastest. Both drivers ran the soft and super soft compound tyre in the morning session. Lewis Hamilton ran the super soft and the soft compound tyres while Nico Rosberg ran the super soft and the medium in the afternoon session.
Lewis Hamilton: It's been a really good day. Monza is always an amazing track to drive and the fans always come out to show their support. We made good progress through our programme across the two sessions and our long run pace felt good. We split the tyre compounds between Nico and myself so we could learn as much as possible going into qualifying and the race and we're looking quite strong. We've still got some work to do this evening to analyse all the data and prepare the car but I'm confident we can take the fight to the rest of the grid.
Nico Rosberg: The car felt pretty good during P1 but we need to work on the balance of the car overnight as the one lap pace didn't feel 100% during P2. We also need to analyse the data from running all three tyres across the two sessions. Still, it's great to be back here at Monza, the tifosi always come out in force to show their support and it's great news that we'll be coming back here for at least the next three years.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): It's been a fine, sunny day here at Monza and a large, enthusiastic crowd turned out in support along with the traditional excited Italian commentary in the background as a quick lap was posted. We ran a fairly normal programme apart from the insertion of the Pirelli test tyre at the start of P1. Otherwise, running soft and super soft during P1 and a split across the two drivers in P2. Doing this allowed us to collate data on all three compounds at low and high fuel. We didn't encounter any problems with either car but we'll need to address the balance on both ahead of qualifying tomorrow.