Hamilton and Mercedes brush up after FP1 and FP2: 'Still improving tonight'
F1 News
After the contract extensions of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes drivers faced some adversity in the first two free practice sessions at Monza, with much work needed to improve their pace for qualifying and the race at the Italian Grand Prix. Both Russell and Hamilton, along with technical director Andrew Shovlin, have spoken after the first two free practice sessions.
Mercedes struggle in both free practice sessions
In the first free practice session, Russell finished fifth and Hamilton eighth. In the second practice session, Hamilton finished 17th and Russell ninth.
Hamilton extended his contract at Mercedes a few days ago. He does see just work to do for his team: "There's lots of learning from today, and we will have a bit of work tonight to try and improve for Saturday - as we always manage to do. I know that the team will do great work overnight to improve the set-up and car balance so that we can be quicker tomorrow."
Shovlin and Russell on W14
"It's been a messy day," Shovlin said after the first two free practice sessions at Monza. "Partly with red flags, but also because we don't have the car in a good place at the moment. That means we have a bit of work to do overnight to get the setup in the right place for the rest of the weekend," he continues.
Russell talks about his experience in the two free practice sessions: "The car was feeling reasonably good, but we have some improvements to make on the soft tyre. The high fuel pace was looking pretty strong, so the focus tomorrow will be on finding more speed for qualifying."