FRIDAY SUMMARY
* 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 - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“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”

TOP 3 TIMES
FP1
Bottas		1m20.703s	SOFT C4 NEW
Hamilton	1m20.948s	SOFT C4 NEW
Albon		1m21.500s	SOFT C4 NEW

FP2
Hamilton	1m20.192s	SOFT C4 NEW
Bottas		1m20.454s	SOFT C4 NEW
Norris		1m21.089s	SOFT C4 NEW

BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
FP1
HARD C2		Hamilton	1m21.676s
MEDIUM C3	Kvyat		1m21.555s
SOFT C4		Bottas		1m20.703s

FP2
HARD C2		Bottas		1m20.932s
MEDIUM C3	Hamilton	1m20.645s
SOFT C4		Hamilton	1m20.192s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND	DRIVER		LAPS
HARD C2		Latifi		25
MEDIUM C3	Russell		21
SOFT C4		Magnussen	23

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
 			HARD	MEDIUM	SOFT
Kms driven*		1593	2178	2722
Sets used overall**	20	27	33

The above number gives the total amount of kilometres
driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.