Hamilton expects a nightmare; Bottas says there’s more to the Mercedes

Hamilton fears that traffic will cause the timer as we saw it last year (Photo: AFP)

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Monza also started the Mercedes with confidence, the first training session with Valtteri Bottas, the second Lewis hamilton closed in lead. The six-time world champion is still not entirely satisfied, and also fears that what will be repeated on the stopwatch last year, that is, due to heavy traffic, many will not be able to make the fastest lap possible.

“I don’t know how it looked from the outside, but we felt an improvement between the first and second training sessions. Hamilton said. “We went with less holding force, which made us slip a bit, but we still managed to move forward. However, I need a few more steps to feel really good in the car. The track surface is quite uneven and there is still room for improvement in terms of balance. And the high traffic will be a real nightmare. “

Valtteri Bottas He’s also off to a good start to the Italian GP weekend, plus the Finnish rider believes he will only be able to do more than Friday later. He was also sure of the other teams’ progress, of course, but he was very confident after the first two practices.

“I’ve had a pretty good time all day, but I’m sure we can still improve Bottas said. “The biggest difficulty for me was the stability with which I struggled in some corners, but other than that everything seemed fine. Comparing our performance and lap times to everyone else’s, I was a bit surprised, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow. We have even more and the quick nails didn’t work perfectly in the second workout so I’m able to do more. However, I’m sure this is also true for the other teams. ”

Like others Max verstappen He also suffered mainly from the balance of his car during free practice on Friday. Plus, it had a huge impact on Red Bull’s tires, but the Dutchman who wrecked his car in early practice knows that if they solve one problem, they won’t have a problem with the other later.

“It didn’t go well today, there were a lot of balance and grip problems. Verstappen said. “Obviously it’s not good and we have to solve the problems.” If the balance of the car is good, the problems with the tires will also be fixed. We have to be attentive to the borders, because sometimes we take too long shifts, although it doesn’t depend much on this in free practice ”.

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After Sebastian Vettel finished the opening practice in the penultimate position, Ferrari managed to make some progress for the second practice. The four-time world champion is aware that the Monza track is not for the SF1000 either, which is not easy to achieve this weekend either.

“Partly because of the track, partly because of our car, things turned out like this He spoke to Vettel about training on Friday. “We try to take the time, but hopefully we’ll be in a better position tomorrow.” It is difficult to drive a car, but this is not the first time. We lost most of the straight lines that we expected, but we also suffered from some lack of traction on the entrances to the corners. The car is skidding a lot, it’s hard to drive and it’s hard to get a really good lap. “

Closed in third position Alexander Albon opening practice at Monza, but in the afternoon he fell slightly on the field, partly due to his fastest lap being canceled after leaving the field. According to the Thai rider, Red Bull has so far not performed perfectly either on the straights or in the corners, which means they still have a long way to go before the stopwatch and the race.

“I did well in the morning, but should have done even better in the afternoon. Albon admitted. “We are close enough, and sometimes you can win four positions in a tenth of a second.” We need to improve the car as we suffer from a lack of pace both on the straights and in the corners. The balance needs a little adjustment, but we know what we want to achieve, we just have to do it. “