Mercedes
Russell looked quick from word go at Imola, topping the session briefly after going out for his soft shod run very early on. Antonelli took a little longer to get going at his home track, and the same trend continued in FP2. Again Russell went for his soft run incredibly early, again Antonelli did not look nearly as comfortable as his team mate. Russell looks well placed to challenge the McLarens, but the home hero needs to find a few tenths overnight if he wants to get in the mix.
George Russell – FP1: 1:16.599, P4; FP2: 1:15.693, P4
“It feels great to be back driving at Imola. This track is one of my favourites and it is definitely one of those circuits that we all love coming to. It has a good mixture of low, medium, and high-speed corners, and it is quite narrow in places. There isn’t a huge amount of run off either, so you need to be at your absolute best to extract a really good lap time.
“The field was really tight today in both sessions, with a few unexpected teams performing really well. As expected, the McLarens were out front setting the benchmark today. It is likely that they will be the favourites to set the pace tomorrow in Qualifying; our aim is to hopefully get amongst them. We’ll keep working hard tonight to identify areas that we can improve in. If we are able to do so, then we can hopefully reduce the gap to the very front and have an enjoyable Saturday.”
Kimi Antonelli – FP1: 1:17.094, P13; FP2: 1:16.406, P18
“I struggled to put everything together on my single laps today. There were some mistakes on my side and the low grip conditions did not make it ideal to get the C6 compound performing. On the other side, I felt good on the long runs with the car providing a good overall balance. After these two sessions, I know what we need to work on and what I need to do to perform at my best in tomorrow’s Qualifying and Sunday’s race.
“It is obviously a really special race for me. During that first lap in FP1, it felt amazing to see all these fans in the grandstand and along the track. It gives so much energy, and when I put my visor down, I am ready to get the job done. Thank you to everyone who was trackside today cheering the team on; I’m looking forward to seeing that support over the rest of the weekend.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
“We’ve brought our first significant aero updates this weekend and they seem to be working as anticipated. That is encouraging and gives us a solid platform on which we can build the rest of our weekend. It is also our first time with the C6 Pirelli compound this season and that’s led to a slightly unusual programme.
“Like most of the cars on the grid, we ran two sets of the Soft compound in FP1, focusing on single lap performance. George’s pace was where we were expecting, consistent with his past performance on a Friday. Kimi still has a bit of work to do overnight on his single lap pace, but the overall picture looks promising. Kimi has been efficient this season in analysing the data overnight and we are sure that tomorrow will be more positive. His long run was strong which bodes well for Sunday even though the C6 compound looks challenging, being softer than what we used last year. The field is tight, and we’ll do our overnight work to see what pace we can bring to final practice. When it is as competitive as we have seen today, every hundredth can make the difference.”
