Hamilton: 'We went a lot slower, or the other guys went a lot quicker'

The first free practice looked good for Mercedes, but in the afternoon at Monza, the W13 clearly fell short of the front-runners. Lewis Hamilton acknowledged that his team had made adjustments that made the car slower.

Hamilton: 'Mercedes slower in FP2'

Toto Wolff has already admitted that it is unlikely to be Mercedes' weekend at Monza, as both drivers were pretty far off the pace of the front-runners during FP2. George Russell suggested that either Mercedes had taken a step backwards between the two Friday practice sessions, or the competition had taken a big step forward. Hamilton agreed with his teammate's words.

"We made some setup changes in between FP1 and FP2 and went a lot slower, or the other guys went a lot quicker - we just didn't feel as fast in the later session," Hamilton said in a Mercedes press release. "I know George had some deployment issues here but my car didn't seem to be affected."

Hamilton further states that Russell will get to choose who goes out first in qualifying on Saturday and assumes that he will have to provide his teammate with a tow, as he himself will incur a grid penalty for the race. "I assume I'll go first and naturally I'll provide him with a bit of a tow," Hamilton concluded.