With the first two practice sessions in Monza behind us, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and George Russell expressed their contentment with their performances on the day. The duo believes each of them had a good outing on Friday and hopes to continue the momentum. After a satisfactory session on Friday, Formula Passion reveals the drivers feel ready to battle for the top spot, given Mercedes meets their demands.
The qualifying session in Zandvoort ended in a ‘half-disaster’ situation for the Brackley-based team. While Russell qualified P3 for the feature race, Hamilton could not make it past Q2 as he had to settle for P13. With ten places between the two drivers, it gave way to other teams to register higher qualifying ranks in Zandvoort.
However, with a new race weekend now upon us, Mercedes will look to let bygones be bygones and hope to challenge the top-ranked team on the grid.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russel are ready to bring the challenge to Monza
Despite the ‘not-so-special’ practice sessions in Monza, the Mercedes drivers were more than happy with what they showcased on Friday. The best finish either driver could conjure was a fifth place by Russell during FP1. The team did showcase an interesting race pace, and the drivers believe they can perform even better on Saturday, should the team meet their demands.
“We learned a lot from today and tonight we will work a bit to try and improve for Saturday, as we always do. I know the team will do a great job overnight to improve the set-up and balance of the car, so we can be quicker in qualifying.”- Hamilton.
“The car was strong, but we have some steps forward on the soft tyres. The high fuel pace was quite good so tomorrow we will focus on finding more speed for qualifying.”- Russell.
The drivers are still far away from the times of Red Bull, and as such, their demands from the team will not be aimed at defeating the Austrian team. They will instead hope to close the gap on the leaders in the constructor’s championship while simultaneously trying to run away from the teams below them.
Monza will be all about closing the gap for Mercedes
A rain-soaked Dutch GP saw Max Verstappen record his 9th consecutive win of the season. The Red Bull driver finished the race with a time of 2:24:04.411, with Fernando Alonso taking second place, finishing the race 3.744 seconds later. In comparison, Hamilton finished the race over thirteen seconds after the Dutchman.
Red Bull are fast closing in on a sixth constructors’ title 👀#DutchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/6XptLCNf6N
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2023
With the forecast at Monza stating clear skies, the temple of speed will witness a dry race. This could mean Verstappen will once again run away with the race, given just how fast the RB19 has been all season. However, with some positivity in their approach, Mercedes could reduce the gap between them and Red Bull before the F1 season starts its Asia tour.
