Italian Grand Prix: Friday Recap

Event: Free Practice 1 & 2 for the Italian Grand Prix – Friday September 4
Location: Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy
Layout: 5.793-kilometer (3.6-mile), 11-turn circuit
FP1 & FP2 Weather: Sunny
Drivers: Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen 

Free Practice No. 1 Rundown

Grosjean: 14th overall (1:22.409) 20 laps completed
Magnussen: 15th overall (1:22.422), 19 laps completed
Fastest Driver: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:20.703)
Most Laps: Daniil Kvyat of Alpha Tauri (31 laps)

Free Practice No. 2 Rundown

Magnussen: 16th overall (1:22.088), 32 laps completed
Grosjean: 18th overall (1:22.254), 34 laps completed
Fastest Driver: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:20.192)
Most Laps: Alexander Albon of Red Bull Racing (36 laps)

Recap

The eighth round of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship began with practice on Friday at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza as teams prepared for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.

Two 90-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – were held under brilliant sunshine on the famed 5.793-kilometer (3.6-mile), 11-turn circuit.

FP1 got underway with Grosjean running the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tire while Magnussen utilized the White hard rubber. Both drivers subsequently switched to the Red soft compound for their fastest laps of the session. Grosjean turned the 14th fastest lap with a time of 1:22.409 with Magnussen setting a 1:22.422 to place directly behind his teammate in 15th. Grosjean returned for a handful of high-fuel laps on his scrubbed softs but Magnussen’s VF-20 was sidelined in the final minutes with a cooling issue.

Grosjean started the afternoon run plan with a baseline stint on the hard rubber. In contrast, Magnussen sampled the medium tires to start his FP2 outing. Fresh sets of softs followed for their qualifying simulations. Magnussen proved fastest with a 1:22.088 – earning the Dane 16th on the timesheet. A 1:22.254 from Grosjean placed the Frenchman 18th overall in the session. Friday’s on-track activities concluded with high-fuel, long-distance runs.

Haas F1 Team ran a total of 105 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 54 by Grosjean and 51 by Magnussen.

Romain Grosjean, Driver No. 8, Haas F1 Team

“The day went okay actually. I had my fastest lap time deleted in FP2, which I’m still not sure about, but I’m as stubborn as you can get. I’ll argue I still had a bit of tire touching the white line. I think had it stuck it would have put us P12 just in front of Sebastian (Vettel). The car didn’t behave too badly – the long run pace was okay. Now we just need to make sure we’re preparing everything for Sunday, as obviously there’s going to be traffic, we’ll need more aero adjustments and so on. We’re looking to see how we can make the car a little more bullet proof. Tomorrow will be hard though. We have to make sure we’re in the right position at the right time in qualifying. We’ll do our best but without a tow here – there’s no chance.”

Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20, Haas F1 Team

“We didn’t get much running last week on the Friday so at least we got some in today. We’ve learned a bit more about the car this time and we’ve tried a few things. There’s plenty to look at tonight and from there we can make some decisions. We knew coming here that this track wasn’t going to be our favorite – we’ll still try and get something out of it. With the power mode changes this weekend, who knows what could happen. It’s hard to say how qualifying will go but we’ll see what we can do.”

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team

“I’d say things probably went a little bit better than expected today, but I don’t want to jump to conclusions too early because with the new engine mode regulations coming in this weekend – we can only see tomorrow where everyone stands. Today was still a free-for-all, I’ve no idea what people were running. We are not unhappy with what we did today, notably our long run pace was good. So, I’m looking forward to tomorrow and seeing what the new engine mode regulations bring for everybody – then we’ll see where we stand.”