Italian GP: Practice notes - Mercedes

07/09/2012

The final race weekend of the European season got underway today at Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Italy.

Michael and Nico completed a total of 131 laps during the two practice sessions. Following Michael's gearbox problem in Spa, the ratios were changed before P1 in accordance with the regulations. The gearbox ran without incident today and will be inspected thoroughly this evening before qualifying and the race. As ever in Monza, the field was closely matched, with the top ten cars in P2 separated by little more than 0.8s.

Nico Rosberg: That was definitely a better start for us than in Spa. We were able to complete a lot of laps today and it seems that we have a good pace on high and low fuel levels. As always, it's difficult to say where we are compared to the others but I hope we can score some good points this weekend. It was great fun to drive on this amazing track, and I always like the special atmosphere here. Yesterday I went out on the old Monza track with a scooter which is great to see.

Michael Schumacher: I am quite happy with the practice sessions as we achieved a lot of reasonable work with regards to long runs which was our main focus today. We have a different aero package for Monza which seems to work well so it seems to be looking better than in the last races. During the sessions, we made progress as well so I am curious to have a look at the data we collected and learn the full picture. It's always nice to be back in Monza as I am still so warmly welcomed by all the tifosi. As I said earlier, I would like to say thank you for that and hope we can put on a good show tomorrow and in the race on Sunday.

Ross Brawn: We've had a pretty good day and both Nico and Michael were reasonably happy with the balance of the car by the end of the second session this afternoon. We completed our planned programme, and have all the information and data that we needed on the different tyres and fuel levels, so now we will have a look and make our plans for tomorrow.

Norbert Haug: A positive start to the weekend on this traditional high-speed track. Nico and Michael posted consistent lap times during their long runs in race trim on both Pirelli tyres. We seem to have a reasonable base to work from tomorrow.

Check out our Friday gallery, here.