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The
repercussions
from
Felipe
Massa’s
accident
in
Budapest
continue
to be
felt at
Scuderia
Ferrari
Marlboro,
as this
weekend
sees
another
Italian
making
his
driving
debut
with the
Prancing
Horse.
For
Giancarlo
Fisichella,
the
start of
this
morning’s
free
practice
was the
moment
he had
been
waiting
for ever
since he
came
second
in the
Belgian
Grand
Prix a
fortnight
ago,
when he
got the
call and
possibly,
ever
since he
was a
little
boy! The
Roman
pushed
hard
throughout
the
three
hours,
getting
to grips
with
remembering
where
all the
buttons
and
controls
are on
the
steering
wheel
and
dealing
with the
power
boost of
the KERS
for the
first
time, as
his
previous
team had
never
used the
system.
He also
admitted
it was
taking
time to
adapt to
cutting
the
kerbs,
but this
factor
probably
applies
to the
other
drivers
too, as
the
Monza
circuit
has
modified
them
since
last
year, in
an
attempt
to stop
drivers
cutting
across
them at
the
corners
and
chicanes.
Giancarlo
was
eighth
fastest
in the
morning,
then
twentieth
in the
afternoon,
but the
times
mean
even
less
than
usual on
a
Friday,
here, as
the high
speed
nature
of the
track
produces
very
close
times.
In fact
the
first
fourteen
this
afternoon,
including
Kimi
Raikkonen
in
eighth
spot,
are all
within a
second
of one
another.
Giancarlo
was
approximately
a
further
6 tenths
off the
fastest
time,
which
was set
by the
man who
has been
his
team-mate
up until
this
weekend,
Adrian
Sutil,
driving
the
Force
India.
Relative
newcomer,
Romain
Grosjean
was
second
quickest,
ahead of
his
Renault
team-mate,
Fernando
Alonso.
Fourth
spot
went to
the
McLaren
of
Heikki
Kovalainen,
with
Robert
Kubica
fifth
for BMW
and Timo
Glock
sixth
for
Toyota.
Fisichella’s
move to
Ferrari
means
there is
another
new face
in the
pack, as
Vitantonio
Liuzzi,
a former
Toro
Rosso
driver,
makes
his F1
return
with
Force
India.
“First
of all, I want to welcome
Giancarlo, who today was
finally able to drive the
F60, after eight days of
theoretical work with the
engineers,” said Stefano
Domenicali. “Obviously, the
team adopted a different
approach to its work on the
two cars: Kimi concentrated
on race preparation, while
Giancarlo worked on getting
confident in the car. We
completed a lot of
kilometres which means we
have plenty of data to
analyse over the rest of the
day. It’s hard to know where
we are compared to the
others: the gaps are very
small and ten kilos of fuel
more or less can translate
into a significant step up
the order.”
Kimi
Raikkonen: “Overall, I’m
reasonably pleased with the
way things went in these
three hours of free practice
and the initial impressions
are good. There is still
room to improve the handling
of the car, which we hope to
do in tomorrow morning’s
free practice. The new kerbs
don’t allow you to cut them
with impunity, which is not
a bad thing given the
difficulty we have
experienced in this area in
the past. Our pace on a long
run isn’t bad and we will do
our best to fight for a
place on the podium. As for
the tyres, the softer
compound is definitely
quicker, but it’s also quite
consistent in terms of
performance.”
Giancarlo
Fisichella: “I feel
satisfied with this first
day, which was particularly
tough from a driving point
of view. The major
difficulties are in adapting
to the different positions
of the buttons and gaining
confidence with the KERS.
This morning, braking
heavily at Ascari, I
flat-spotted the left front
tyre and that meant I had to
fit the softer tyres earlier
than planned: I felt more
confident with those and I
managed to drive at a strong
pace. In both sessions, we
didn’t go looking for
performance and I had a lot
of fuel on board. The
potential is there to get
onto the front few rows, but
I need a bit more time to
improve, especially in terms
of braking and cutting the
kerbs.”
Chris
Dyer: “We can be
satisfied with the result of
the work we did with both
drivers today. We completed
our programme without any
problems, concentrating on
finding the best set-up on
the car. We are pleased with
the performance over a long
run and, naturally, tomorrow
morning, we will work on
performance over the first
lap, to prepare for
qualifying. Giancarlo
tackled the day’s work
without experiencing any
difficulty and we are not
worried about his lap time,
because the fundamental
thing is for him to get
experience in the car and
with the use of KERS.”
First session
G. Fisichella: 8th 1.24.732, 24 Laps,
Chassis 280
K. Raikkonen: 10th 1.24.761, 26 Laps,
Chassis 279
Second session
G. Fisichella: 20th 1.25.543, 36 Laps,
Chassis 280
K. Raikkonen: 8th 1.24.796, 39 Laps,
Chassis 279
Weather
First session:
air 23/25 °C, track 30/35 °C; sunny
Second session: air 28/29 °C, track
38 °C; sunny
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