2017 Italian Grand Prix - Friday

USPA NEWS - Silver Arrows set the practice pace on Friday

Lewis finished the morning session in P1 with Valtteri in P2 at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza

Valtteri ended the day in P1 in the afternoon session with Lewis in P2

Both drivers ran the Medium (Install), Soft and SuperSoft compound tyre in FP1

In FP2, both Valtteri and Lewis then used the Soft and SuperSoft compound tyre

The Silver Arrows were the only cars to finish FP1 in under 1:22 with Lewis over a second faster than the Ferraris in P3 and P4

In FP2, the four fastest cars finished within half a second of each other

Despite the rain that was forecast, it stayed dry for most of the practice sessions

Valtteri Bottas -

First of all it was nice that it stayed dry today because all the forecasts said that the rain could affect the running and we could have limited running before qualifying and the race in the dry. But we got our full plan done. In FP1 we were actually ahead of the plan because we were still worried about the weather. I think it was a good day ““ at least I have a better feeling than I had after the Friday in Spa, everything started on the right foot. Initially in FP1 we went slightly in the wrong direction with the setup, but we managed to change it around for FP2 and the car felt a lot better. Overall, it was a positive day, the car is looking strong, but obviously it´s the next two days that count.

Lewis Hamilton -

It´s been a good day, a clean day. We got the running done, we got through our programme with no problems. The car seems nicely balanced here. We just have some work to do to eke out a little bit more performance. It looks quite close between us and the Ferraris, so I anticipate it´s going to be similar to the last race in that sense.

James Allison -

It was a slightly unusual Friday because the forecasts were quite pessimistic about the rain ““ overly pessimistic as it turned out. It meant that we put quite a bit of what we would normally do in the afternoon into the morning session. Considering the slightly unusual nature of the day, we´re quite pleased with the way it´s worked out. Both drivers looked fairly competitive on both the long runs and the short runs. It´s a very unusual circuit with unique downforce levels, but we looked to be in ok shape. There is a threat of rain for tomorrow, so all bets might be off for what we learned today, but it will be a dry race. So looking strong in the dry today is a good sign.