During the second practice session for the GP of Italy, we only found George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes F1 car in ninth and seventeenth places. According to both drivers, it will be a challenge to reach Q3 during qualifying.
“I think as always it will be very close between McLaren, Aston Martin and Ferrari, even Williams is starting to get involved, especially on Saturday,” said Russell. “We’ll have to do it really well I think, even to get into Q3, it’s going to be a very close fight.”
During qualifying in Monza, an alternative tire format will again be used where the hard tire compound must be used in Q1, the medium in Q2 and the hard tire compound in Q3. According to Russell, the harder tires will suit the Mercedes F1 car better.
“I think we will be more competitive on the hard and medium tyre, than on the soft tyre. We will therefore have to find something to get ahead more.”
Russell also fears a similar scenario as in Zandvoort. Then he qualified himself in P3 while Hamilton was killed in Q2. According to Russell, everything is so close together that it will even be a challenge for Mercedes to survive Q2.
“If you do it perfectly then you can be on the second row. As soon as you don’t do it so perfectly you can be around tenth place.”
Teammate Lewis Hamilton also agrees, also according to Hamilton it will be a challenge to reach Q3.
“At our current speed, I have no idea how easy it will be to get into Q3. We will have to work on that from Friday to Saturday. In the first practice session we were in the top three quite easily, I’m crossing my fingers that we can get into it.”