Italian Grand Prix Free Practice

Tom Wilkinson's Friday Report

Formula 1 kicks off in Italy, the paddock was greeted by warm sunshine and an expectant crowd. Being the home race for Ferrari, the pressure was on for the Scuderia. In Thursday's Press conference, Fernando Alonso said “I still have three and a half more years with Ferrari which I intend to respect and hopefully to increase a little bit, and as I said, finish my career in the best team in the world which is Ferrari”. This will be music to the ears of the Italian fans. Kimi Raikkonen find's himself in the centre of the rumour mill once again, many people predicting he will be returning to Ferrari. Don't expect any announcement this weekend. Friday is practice day of course, so let's take a look at the on track action.

Free Practice 1:

The first session was a low-key affair as the cars and drivers got to grips with this historic and fast Monza circuit. There was plenty of teams running upgrades in this session, notably Mercedes with a revised low downforce package and passive DRS rear wing on Nico Rosberg's car. Lotus had a longer wheelbase car for Kimi Raikkonen with revised front suspension, teammate Romain Grosjean had the standard E21 car. Ferrari were also testing new parts on the car, the dayglow yellow hi-viz paint dripping as Alonso trundled down the pit lane.

Mercedes had a very strong start to the weekend as last years race winner Lewis Hamilton topped the time sheets with teammate Nico Rosberg in third. Alonso finished in second and should be encouraged by the pace of the Ferrari. Vettel managed fourth as Red Bull didn't really feature much in this first session. The Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen was fifth with the two McLaren's following behind.

The chicanes dotted around the circuit caught a number of drivers out at this early stage in the weekend. The two Williams drivers took a trip across the gravel at the Ascari chicane, both drivers continued after their off track excursions. The Rettifilo Chicane also caught out a hand full of drivers, as they misjudged the breaking point on the start finish straight and had to slalom through the bollards on the escape road.

It was a relatively low-key session, here is how the time sheet looked at the end of the 90 minutes.

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:25.565 2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:25.600
3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:25.704 4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:25.753
5 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus 1:25.941 6 Sergio Perez McLaren 1:26.007
7 Jenson Button McLaren 1:26.035. 8 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:26.103
9 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:26.149 10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:26.155
11 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:26.194 12 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:26.295
13 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:26.387 14 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:26.449
14 Paul di Resta Force India 1:26.594 16 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:26.802
17 James Calado Force India 1:27.041 18 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:27.224
19 Charles Pic Caterham 1:27.818 20 Max Chilton Marussia 1:27.869
21 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1:28.192 22 Rodolfo Gonzalez Marussia 1:29.526

Free Practice 2:

The second session got underway in front of an excellent crowd providing an incredible atmosphere around Monza. But this session was quite a contrast to the first. Red Bull dominated pretty much from the off leaving everyone else to play catch up. Sebastian Vettel's pace was stunning, but his consistency was just remarkable. The team appeared to have cracked the low downforce set up and look set to dominate the weekend based on this performance.

Mercedes couldn't repeat their FP1 performance, Lewis Hamilton was struggling with the breaks occasionally running wide. However they have been know to struggle on a Friday before, and recover well for the remainder of the weekend. Lotus had a good session with both drivers, Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were maximising the E21’s performance in the second session setting identical fastest times of 1:25.116 despite the pair running different length wheelbases.

Looking at the pace of Ferrari once again, I noticed good long run and race pace. The Scuderia look to have a good package in place for Sunday, however they will need a good qualifying performance to maximise their potential. Felipe Massa had a bad end to FP2 however with a gearbox issue, ending his session early. McLaren made it into the top ten on the timesheets once again as they celebrate their 50th anniversary this weekend.

The session was dominated by Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel , the trend looks to continue for the remainder of the weekend judging from their FP2 performance. This is how the timesheets looked for the final session of the day.

1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:24.453 2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:25.076
3 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus 1:25.116 4 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:25.116
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:25.330 6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:25.340
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:25.367 8 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:25.519
9 Jenson Button McLaren 1:25.532 10 Sergio Perez McLaren 1:25.627
11 Paul di Resta Force India 1:25.830 12 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:25.888
13 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:26.028 14 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:26.138
15 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:26.224 16 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:26.385
17 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:26.599 18 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:27.198
19 Max Chilton Marussia 1:27.548 20 Charles Pic Caterham 1:27.696
21 Giedo V.D.Garde Caterham 1:27.771 22 Jules Bianchi Marussia- 1:28.057

Tom Wilkinson's Friday Roundup

The track is closed and that's the end of the days action, It's been an interesting day with plenty to talk about. With the dominant performance from Red Bull this afternoon it looks like they are set to continue the trend. But don't count out Ferrari or Mercedes just yet, it's Ferrari's home race so the support for them will be as strong as ever. With the company president in town they will be under intense pressure to deliver. Mercedes on the other hand have recovered from rather lacklustre Friday performances in the past. So they could recover come qualifying, especially with their new passive DRS and revised downforce package. Lewis Hamilton needs to work on his break balance however.

Looking ahead tomorrow, the final practice session is likely to determine who will have the outright pace for qualifying with low fuel runs. Keep your eyes on Ferrari as they were practicing slipstreaming in FP2 today, it appears to be a tactic they will use tomorrow.

For all the latest F1 news follow me on Twitter @TomWilkinsonF1, tweet me your thoughts throughout the weekend. Stay right up to date with all the action right here at Driving For Pleasure, and as ever a big thank you to Kevin Bennett for his tremendous F1 photographs. From Monza in Italy, that's it for today.