06/09/2019
NEWS STORY
Not a huge amount was learned about the P Zero slick tyres, as four red flags and rain featured throughout both sessions. Conditions are set to remain variable for the rest of the weekend, so today could end up being quite representative.
The rain ensured representative running on the Cinturato Green intermediate tyres, as well as the slick tyres. This gave teams a valuable initial insight into the likely crossover points, which could be extremely useful information this weekend. Despite the rain, today's best FP2 time was already faster than its equivalent one year ago.
So far, the time difference between the medium and the soft is just under a second per lap but track evolution in dry conditions means that this will come down. In the cool conditions seen today, with track temperatures peaking at only 28 degrees centigrade, the softer compounds generally worked better.
There's a patch of new asphalt at the second chicane: this is smoother and more slippery than the other parts of the track, especially when the surface is damp.
The uncertain weather expected for the rest of the weekend means that there could be different approaches to qualifying, with different teams opting for either a wet or a dry set-up.
Charles Leclerc was fastest with his Ferrari in FP1 (on the medium tyre) as well as in FP2 (on the soft tyre). But the true picture of relative performance between the top teams is yet to fully emerge.
Mario Isola: "It was a tricky opening day at Monza, but that didn't mean that it wasn't useful, especially because the weather looks set to be uncertain for the rest of the weekend. As a result, teams made the most of running the slick and intermediate tyres, in order to be prepared for anything and also to assess the crossover points. The full wet tyres were also used, but only by a few drivers for a handful of laps. Nonetheless, it's true that both sessions were heavily interrupted, which means that teams are still missing quite a lot of data and the overall picture of tyre behaviour remains incomplete. The work carried out in free practice tomorrow morning will be particularly vital as the teams head into qualifying, depending on how the conditions look."