F1 Monza - FRI - Free Practice

The first day on the Monza circuit was highly favourable to the majority of the Mercedes-powered F1 cars.


All in all, Mercedes-powered single-seaters ruled the first Free Practice day at Monza. At the end of Session 1 and after a number of 26 laps, Lewis Hamilton from McLaren-Mercedes was 1st, winning the session with a 1m 23.936s lap time. Closely following him in the rankings was his teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, who managed a honourable 1m 24.332s time, enough to assure him the 2nd place, in front of his contender, Adrian Sutil, from Force India-Mercedes, who finished 3rd(1m 24.471s).

The results of Session 2 were different. It was time for Sutil to advance in front of the other drivers, with a final 1m 23.924s time after 28 laps, managing to better his & Hamilton's times from Session 1. 2nd & 3rd were knocked down to Renault F1 Team in this order:Romain Grosjean(1m 24.163s) and Fernando Alonso(1m 24.297s). The best result for McLaren came from Kovalainen, on 4th(1m 24.482s), whereas Hamilton struggled to finish only 11th(1m 24.902s).

The third Mercedes-powered team, Brawn GP, which leads in both constructors' and drivers' championship, encountered some problems, at the end of the day their results looking like so:

- Session 1:
- Jenson Button - 1m 24.706s - 21 laps - 7th
- Rubens Barrichelo - 1m 24.826 s - 24 laps - 12th

- Session 2:
- Rubens Barrichello - 1m 25.140s - 35 laps - 16th
- Jenson Button - 1 m25.424s - 32 laps - 19th

Sutil's new mate after the departure of Giancarlo Fisichella at Scuderia Ferrari, Vittantonio Liuzzi, officially returned to Formula 1 after more than 1 year and a half of absence, scored a decent result in both sessions:

- Session 1:1m 25.689s - 29 laps - 16th
- Session 2:1m 24.921s - 39 laps - 12th

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Monza, Italy, Sep 11, 2009

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-24-04
P1 programme
- 26 laps
- 1m23.936s (1st)
P2 programme
- 32 laps
- 1m24.902s (11th)

Lewis conducted four runs this morning as he evaluated MP4-24�s low-downforce Monza package and back-to-backed a number of aero components. Despite losing a piece of bodywork (a right-hand-side fuel-filler cap) on his first lap, he was immediately on the pace, topping the timesheets for the whole session. He completed runs of three laps/1m24.632s best, four laps/1m24.147s, five laps/1m23.936s and three laps/1m24.920s.

The afternoon�s session also started with a slight hiccup when Lewis flat-spotted his tyres under braking for the Variante della Roggia and pitted early to avoid the excessive vibration. Nonetheless, he enjoyed another productive session, tweaking the set-up and evaluating both tyre compounds while running heavier fuel-loads. He conducted Prime-tyre runs of one lap/1m31.930s, 10 laps/1m25.099s before switching to Options and setting best times of 1m24.902s (nine laps) and 1m24.920s (three laps).

�I�m pleased with our progress,� said Lewis. �It�s always a little nerve-wracking when you arrive at a unique circuit such as this because you want to see if you�ve taken the right direction with the car�s aerodynamics. But this morning�s session showed us that the engineers had made a very accurate assessment of what would be needed. KERS certainly helps around here � we can expect it to be worth nearly four tenths in qualifying tomorrow � but we also made some good progress with our overall package. This afternoon was spent on heavier fuel-loads, so you can�t read too much into the times, but I�m encouraged by where we are.�

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
- MP4-24-03
P1 programme
- 27 laps
- 1m24.332s (2nd)
P2 programme
- 41 laps
- 1m24.482s (4th)

A strong day for Heikki, who underlined the solid foundations of MP4-24�s low-downforce spec by finishing the day�s sessions in second and fourth place. He started the morning working to neutralise the set-up of the car, becoming increasingly happy with the balance as the session progressed � he set times of 1m25.133s/six laps, 1m24.332s/six laps and 1m24.492s/eight laps.

For P2, he once again declared himself happy with the balance, setting times of 1m25.311s/five laps and 1m25.164s/nine laps before switching to Options and recording a 12-lap long run (1m25.320s), a 1m24.482s/four laps and a final single-lap run of 1m24.865s.

Heikki said: �At Monza, you�re always facing the problem of balancing overall downforce with grip through the corners � and I think today was possibly better than we anticipated. We�re quicker in the corners than we were last year, which is good.

�The KERS advantage here is nearly four tenths per lap so it�s really helpful along the straights and out of the slower corners. Others have more downforce compared with us, but we have this fantastic KERS from Mercedes-Benz. It�s funny: the teams have all adopted different technical solutions but the laptimes are still very close together � that�s the beauty of Formula 1.�

COMMENTS

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
�A disciplined day�s work for the team today as we evaluated our low-downforce Monza aero components and looked at tyre performance on heavier fuel loads. We�re encouraged by the results of today�s programme, but are fully aware that all teams will be making substantial changes overnight and, equally, we�ll need to further adapt our cars ahead of qualifying. Nonetheless, we�re encouraged by the direction we�ve taken and the results we�ve seen in both of today�s sessions.�

NORBERT HAUG
Vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
�Two good and productive sessions for us today. As we�ve all learned over the course of this season, the field is very tight. Heikki in fourth is separated from Giancarlo Fisichella in 20th position by just over a second, and all 20 cars are within 1.6 seconds. Our long runs on high fuel loads looked quite promising compared with our competitors, but I seriously think there are a handful of teams who can compete for pole tomorrow.�








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