The Toro Rosso drivers', Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, turned in a steady opening day and posted respectable times at Monza today as the first two practice sessions for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix got underway.

Buemi was the quicker of the two youngsters posting the sixth and tenth fastest times in session one and two respectively in the Ferrari V8-powered STR4 car although Friday practice times are a notoriously unreliable indicator towards Saturday and Sunday form. The Swiss driver's 19-year-old team mate Jaime Alguersuari meanwhile was getting used to driving an F1 car on such a high speed track and he set the fifteenth and seventeenth fastest times in the two sessions.

Sebastien Buemi (STR4-03): “We had a good day, running trouble free in both sessions. Now, we just need to find a bit more speed for tomorrow, when we will have a new engine, so let’s wait and see what we can do. It’s nice to drive at such a high speed track, because it gives you a different feeling, hitting speeds you never see anywhere else.”

First Practice Session: Best lap 1:24.703, pos. 6th, 35 laps; Second Practice Session: Best lap 1:24.884, pos. 10th, 44 laps

Jaime Alguersuari (STR4-02): “I found it quite tough driving today for the first time, with this low downforce package, as I had no experience of that so far in F1. But that’s a good thing, as it is all part of my learning experience. I felt I got an understanding of how to drive the car on new and old tyres and with high and low fuel loads and I had a good feeling in the car. We have a reasonable set-up on the car, but I think we can improve it still further tomorrow.”