04/09/2020
NEWS STORY
Mercedes was fastest during both sessions, going quickest on Red soft compounds in the morning, before setting the quickest time of the day on the soft in the afternoon, courtesy of Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton's best FP2 time was nearly a second faster than the best FP2 time last year (although free practice last year was affected by mixed weather conditions).
Teams explored the performance of the different compounds on different fuel loads, and also worked on various qualifying tactics, to potentially take advantage of slipstreaming on the rapid straights.
A few drivers went wide today on certain corners, dragging dirt onto the track that might have slightly affected the lap times and potentially damaged tyres of those following behind.
Conditions were dry and warm throughout free practice at Monza, with ambient temperatures close to 30 degrees and track temperatures in excess of 40 degrees during the afternoon.
Mario Isola: "Today's tyre performance was exactly in line with expectations, although it's hard to compare with last year as the weather conditions were quite different. Between the hard and the soft tyre there's about a second in total: about 0.6s between soft and medium and 0.4s between medium and hard.
"We saw some long runs on all three compounds today which suggests that the hard compound could also play an important role at what is set to be a one-stop race. As expected, we saw teams trying out a few different tactics for qualifying, which has always been a feature of Monza.
"The warm conditions we had today should remain for the rest of the weekend, which means that the information captured in free practice should be very relevant to both qualifying and the race. The tyres themselves have stood up well to the challenge of the 'Temple of Speed' over the long runs, even with the softest compound."