Friday: McLaren can think about pole position

Hamilton and Kovalainen have reasons to be confident at Monza. It was the young Brit who set the fastest time of the day during the first free practice session. His teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, right behind him, took the 2nd place. A perfect session for Martin Whitmarsh’s team.

The second session was less fast, but just as convincing. Conducting tests with high fuel loads, the reigning world champion takes the 11th position. The Finn, meanwhile, is 4th. McLaren eagerly awaits tomorrow’s qualifying and hopes to rank among the best.

Lewis Hamilton – 1st and 11th:

«I am satisfied with our progress. It’s always a bit nerve-wracking when you arrive at a unique circuit like this, because you want to see if the car’s aerodynamics are good or not. But this morning’s session showed us that the engineers had worked well. The KERS certainly contributes to this performance – and we could hope for that – but we have also made good progress on our package. This afternoon, we tested the car with a lot of fuel, so we can’t know our true pace, but I am very encouraged by these results.»

Heikki Kovalainen – 2nd and 4th:

At Monza, you are always faced with the problem of balance and downforce in the corners. We are faster in the corners than we were last year. That’s a good sign. The advantage of KERS is nearly 4 tenths per lap, so it’s really interesting on the straights and coming out of slow corners. Other cars have more downforce, but compared to us, we have this fantastic KERS.»

Martin Whitmarsh – Team Manager:

« A disciplined work day for the team today where we assessed our aerodynamic appendages, and looked at tire performance under heavy fuel loads. We are encouraged by these results. »