Mercedes "surprised" by gap to rivals
Nico Rosberg admitted his Mercedes team was surprised by its big advantage over its rivals following Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix.
Photo by: XPB Images
Lewis Hamilton topped both sessions, with Rosberg second, while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finished a distant third, over seven tenths off in FP2.
The German had been over 1.5 seconds slower in the morning.
"Yes, we are surprised," said Rosberg, who finished just 0.021 seconds behind Hamilton in the afternoon.
"We look really quick here at the moment, I am pleased with that.
"Lewis has been quick up until now but it got very close at the end there as we were trying the qualifying runs. That is okay, so we are going in the right direction.
"It has not gone my way up until now. But of course I will try and tomorrow is another shot and it is very close today and for sure there is a good opportunity tomorrow."
Hamilton added: "It has been a good day. A testing day. Lots of things to try. The car has been feeling good so far this weekend and it's great pace for the team so need to keep it together."
Although Mercedes has introduced an updated engine after having used all its remaining development tokens, Hamilton said it felt the same as before.
"It just feels the same. It is more reliability changes to improve reliability," he said.
"The engine feels fantastic because it is a fantastic engine. It still feels the same."
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments