Ferrari set the pace at home
At the end of the first free practice session for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix it was the home favourite Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team which set the pace around the ultra-fast Monza track. Although Michael Schumacher ran only seven laps in total after stopping early to strip his car' brakes, he set the quickest time of the session , a few hundredth's of a second faster than his own team-mate Eddie Irvine, second quickest after running 13 laps. Irvine tried different rear wings, opting for the one with more downforce and both cars were fitted with a revised front wing especially for this circuit.
McLaren Mercedes third and fourth
The two McLaren Mercedes drivers were unable to better third and fourth fastest time this morning ,David Coulthard improving to just under half a second under Schumacher's best while Hakkinen was almost a full second off the pace, the Finn locking up his front brakes and sliding straight across the first chicane at one stage due, he said, to the lack of grip on the 'green' track. The team expect to improve as the grip level increases with more rubber and they fine tune their cars to new Bridgestone rear tyres brought to this race.
Williams on the pace
The two Williams-Mecachrome cars filled the next two places on the time sheets this morning, Heinz-Harald Frentzen only a few tenth's of a second behind the McLaren times with his team-mate Villeneuve sixth another two tenth's behind after routine set-up changes. Frentzen , who lost some track time with a rear brake disc problem that was causing a vibration at the rear of his car said later that he was also amazed by the difference in set-ups caused by the change of temperature between outings on the circuit.
Slow start for Hill
Spa winner Damon Hill got off to a troubled start this morning setting only the seventh fastest time of the session after stopping out on the track with an electrical failure on his Jordan after running over a kerb. He was delighted with the handling of his car after the running he did, the British driver confident that he would again be competitive at this race. His team mate Ralf Schumacher was back in 11th spot, the German complaining of understeer at the Lesmos, Parabolica and Ascari corners and his car being nervous under braking. The Jordan's were sporting revised rear bodywork panels upswept at the rear as well as new development engines which they plan to use for qualifying.
In brief...
Benetton were having brake problems, Fisichella having a harmless spin on his way to eighth fastest time. The two drivers were also working to set up their cars to the new construction Bridgestone rear tyres. Panis was delayed by an hydraulic problem with his Prost while Trulli was unhappy with the handling of his car. Jean Alesi did not run because of gearchange electrical problems with his Sauber. The Tyrrell drivers were running new brake material which they did not like much , both drivers had an off during the session. A bad start for the Arrows team, Pedro Diniz spent most of the session in the pits with electrical problems and Salo stopped on his first lap with a suspected fuel pump problem.
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