01/09/2017
NEWS STORY
Renault Sport Formula One Team ended the first day of the Formula 1 Gran Premio Heineken d'Italia 2017 with Nico Hülkenberg leading the charge for the team with the twelfth fastest time, 1min 23.272secs. Jolyon Palmer ended the second session just behind his team-mate in thirteenth with his 1min 23.317secs lap.
In FP1, both drivers used Pirelli's Medium (white) and Supersoft (red) tyres. In FP2, Jolyon and Nico ran with the Soft (yellow) and Supersoft tyres. Nico's session ended early due to a minor hydraulic issue after completing 14 laps.
Nico Hülkenberg: "We had a pretty standard Friday. The balance felt good but we have the usual challenges of Monza, top speed isn't our strength so we need to see how we can address that for Saturday and Sunday."
Jolyon Palmer: "Overall the car feels okay, though we were not yet as competitive as we'd like to be. We knew Monza wasn't going to be the easiest track for us, having said that, we know there is still more to come from the car. We did lose some running time this morning following a puncture on one set of tyres, but we managed to catch most of it back up during FP2 this afternoon."
Bob Bell, Chief Technical Officer: "A pretty straightforward day today. Although we managed to get all the information we needed, as a precautionary measure, we ended Nico's FP2 session early due to a minor issue related to the hydraulic system. Jolyon generally had a good day but lost some time in the morning when he had an air leak from his tyre. Both drivers were generally happy with balance of their cars. We are positive we can put on a good show for qualifying and for the race."