Nico Rosberg picked up where he left off in Belgium by topping the opening practice session of the Italian Grand Prix, edging teammate Lewis Hamilton to the fastest time by 0.2s.
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Hamilton was almost four tenths of a second faster than Rosberg, with Sebastian Vettel almost a second behind in third and Kimi Raikkonen fourth in the other Ferrari.
The Mercedes drivers also exchanged quickest times in Friday’s two practice sessions and on Saturday morning looked like they were on another planet at F1’s most power-dependent circuit. We found a good balance in between the sectors so it’s now up to us and the vehicle. “Ferrari has a good buffer on us”.
Rosberg believes there was something not quiet right with the auto during FP2.
Vettel conceded that Mercedes will still be hard to beat: “We’ve had worse Fridays, but I think Mercedes is looking very strong, similar to past year. Other than that, the first impression is positive”.
Paddy Lowe, Mercedes’ executive director, said: “We ran a fairly normal programme apart from the insertion of the Pirelli test tyre at the start of P1”. They seem to be very competitive around here, so in that regard, nothing has changed.
“We’ve done a bit, we can do more, we can improve on where we are. At least I expected Ferrari to be behind Mercedes here, but I didn’t expect the gap to be as big as it is”.
Red Bull finished the best part of a second off Mercedes, with Max Verstappen 0.931s off Hamilton after setting a super-soft time late in the session due to a rear wing issue.
Monza has hosted a race every year bar one since the Formula One championship started in 1950 and is regarded as the temple of Italian motorsport, and spiritual home of glamour team Ferrari.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was seventh, while his team-mate Jenson Button, whose future in the sport remains shrouded in uncertainty, finished 10th, 1.7 seconds slower than Hamilton. “We had a chat about what happened at Spa and I prefer to do it there, with Charlie, instead of in the media, or in the drivers’ briefing”.
“So now we can focus on doing our job”.
Kevin Magnussen, fresh off a frightening crash in Belgium, had another problem on the 180-degree Parabolica, but escaped any more damage in his Renault.
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Williams driver Felipe Massa, who on Thursday announced he will be retiring from the sport at the end of the season, was 11th, despite battling a number of auto issues.
