Monza FP1 and FP2

Hamilton bounces back in FP1 at Monza

This morning we saw Mercedes picking up where they left off in opening practice at the Italian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton fastest ahead of Jenson Button.

With Mercedes' title-duelling drivers returning to the track two weeks on from their controversial clash on the second lap of the Belgian GP which has been dissected and debated ever since, Hamilton was immediately setting the pace around high-speed Monza circuit this morning.

Hamilton's fastest time of 1:26.187 set midway through the 90 minutes of dry running under bright skies at the Monza circuit proved a significant eight-tenths faster than his championship-leading team-mate Nico Rosberg could manage. For the first P1 session since Canada in June, Mercedes didn't record a timesheet one-two as Jenson Button surprisingly went second quickest for McLaren and was six tenths back on his former team-mate.

Nico Rosberg finished the session in third place ahead of Fernando Alonso in fourth place and ahead of Kevin Magnussen in fifth place. The result of Button and Magnussen in this morning's session has been a strong start so far for them as the McLaren team have not finished higher than fourth since the season-opener in Australia but do have access to the class-leading Mercedes engine which is expected to dominate this weekend.

With Renault still trailing in the power stakes behind their rivals Mercedes, Red Bull are braced for another uphill struggle despite Daniel Ricciardo winning impressively in Belgium. Sebastian Vettel finished the session in sixth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in seventh place, Sergio Perez in eighth place, Daniil Kvyat in ninth place and Nico Hulkenberg in tenth place.

Esteban Guiterrez finished the session in eleventh place ahead of Valtteri Bottas in twelfth place, Felipe Massa in thirteenth place and Jean-Eric Vergne in fourteenth place. Sauber test and reserve driver Gideo van der Garde finished the best out of the four Friday drivers in this session in fifteenth place ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo who finished in sixteenth after he was restricted to just 12 laps of running thanks to a power unit-related fault.

Force India's test and reserve driver Daniel Juncadella finished the session in seventeenth place even though he had to wait 30 minutes during the half and a hour session this morning while the floor was changed on his VJM07. Pastor Maldonado finished the session in eighteenth place ahead of Max Chilton in nineteenth place and Jules Bianchi in twentieth place.

Lotus’s test and reserve driver and former Caterham driver Charles Pic finished the session in twenty-first place ahead of the two Caterham drivers of Roberto Merhi and Marcus Ericsson. With Formula Renault 3.5 title-challenger Merhi, running in his first Friday morning’s session and gaining his first ever mileage in an F1 car (and like fellow F1 novice Andre Lotterer in Belgium), he outpaced Caterham’s regular race driver Marcus Ericsson.

Merhi now hands the car back to the recalled Kamui Kobayashi for the remainder of the weekend, although he is likely to be back in the CT05 over the remainder of the season.

The classification of FP1 at the Italian Grand Prix is as follows below:-

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1.26.187
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 0.623s
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 0.808s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 0.982s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1.041s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1.084s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1.306s
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1.500s
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1.554s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.925s
Esteban Guiterrez Sauber-Ferrari 1.927s
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1.961s
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1.963s
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 2.113s
Gideo van der Garde Sauber-Ferrari 2.242s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 2.300s
Daniel Juncadella Force India-Mercedes 3.005s
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 3.325s
Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 3.830s
Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 3.894s
Roberto Merhi Caterham-Renault 4.517s
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 4.761s

Rosberg leads a trouble riddled Hamilton in FP2 at Monza

This afternoon we saw Mercedes picking up where they left off in opening practice at the Italian Grand Prix, with Nico Rosberg fastest ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton.

It would seem that getting heat into the conservative Pirelli tyres continued to be an issue for the drivers during the session leading to some experimenting a flying lap, slow lap, flying lap sequence to get the tyres into the correct operating window. This is a tactic employed in GP2 where tyre blankets are banned and could make for an interesting qualifying session on Saturday as the drivers battle for track position over a three-lap sequence rather than the normal single-flyer.

But nevertheless, Rosberg set the fastest lap time with a 1.26.225 and held onto a 0.6 second gap to his team mate. Meanwhile, Hamilton lost the opening hour of the session due to what Mercedes described as “electronic problems” which meant the team were unable to start his W05. After changing the sensors on the car, Hamilton was sent out for a quick familiarisation run by his team before bolting on the medium tyres for his qualifying simulation and immediately lit up the timing screens.

Perhaps fired up by the delay, Hamilton could even have finished the session fastest had he not caught traffic in the form of Marcus Ericsson and Jean-Eric Vergne at the Ascari chicane on his two flying laps after having twice been faster through the opening two sectors.

It would seem that being cheered on by the passionate Tifosi crowd, Ferrari took the fight to Mercedes with Kimi Raikkonen finishing in third place just a tenth shy of Rosberg. It has been a difficult return to Ferrari for Raikkonen in 2014 so far, but he has outpaced Fernando Alonso once again who finished in the session in fourth place and perhaps Raikkonen is finally getting the handling of the F14 T to his liking.

Valtteri Bottas finished the session in fifth place ahead of Jenson Button in sixth place who suffered a severe lock up during the session on his front left tyre, ahead of Sebastian Vettel in seventh place and Kevin Magnussen in eighth place. Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo finished the session in ninth and tenth places and appeared to have made a slight improvement since FP1 this morning.

Sergio Perez finished the session in eleventh place ahead of his team mate Nico Hulkenberg in twelfth place, Danill Kvyat in thirteenth place and Esteban Guiterrez in fourteenth place. Jean-Eric Vergne ended the session in fifteenth place ahead of Adrian Sutil in sixteenth place, Jules Bianchi in seventeenth place and Pastor Maldonado in eighteen place.

Lotus throughout the course of the weekend so far has struggled to get heat into their tyres to get a quick lap time. But it was the least of their worries as both cars struggled for not only braking stability, but also cornering grip leading to both Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado making regular trips to gravel traps and tarmac run-off areas.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Max Chilton finished in nineteenth place ahead of Romain Grosjean in twentieth place and the two Caterham's of Kobyashi and Ericsson, with Kobayashi after returning to the car after his absence in Belgium comfortably outqualifying his team mate once again.

The classification of FP2 at the Italian Grand Prix is as follows below:-

Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1.26.225
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 0.061s
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 0.106s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 0.340s
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 0.533s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 0.537s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 0.537s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 0.656s
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 0.710s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 0.767s
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 0.854s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.002s
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1.251s
Esteban Guiterrez Sauber-Ferrari 1.615s
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1.704s
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1.804s
Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 2.434s
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 2.475s
Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 2.561s
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 2.860s
Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 2.953s
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 3.030s