Hamilton: You could get baked in the car!

Kimi Antonelli’s debut practice in a Mercedes did not go well – the 18-year-old Italian driver crashed heavily with George Russell’s car early in the session, after which he apologised to the team for the unnecessary trouble.

But the fastest on Friday in Monza was Lewis Hamilton, who won the Italian Grand Prix five times in different years.

Lewis Hamilton (1st): “Overall the impressions are quite good, although it is clear that new asphalt brings new problems, but the car worked well from the very beginning of the training. During the first training the tyres were very grainy, but in the break between the sessions we made the right adjustments to the settings and in the second half of the day the car performed even better.

We still have to work on a number of issues related to different aspects. First of all, we are talking about long series of circles – we have certain problems with this.

But it was so hot in my car that you could have roasted yourself in there! And I still don’t know why. It was not for nothing that I complained to the team on the radio that the seat was just hot, like in a sauna, so the sensations were quite painful.

I am in a confident mood for tomorrow’s qualifying, although it will be important in the evening to continue working on the settings with the team specialists who are based at Brackley and to be in constant contact with us.’

George Russel (6th): “First of all, I am glad that Kimi was not injured, because the accident was serious. Our mechanics did a great job to repair the car in time for the second session and I was able to take part in the practice, albeit with a half-hour delay.

Thanks to the car I was able to show good results, enough to climb to a fairly high line in the protocol, but still I will have to analyse everything carefully in the evening with my engineers, especially because it was not the most productive Friday for me.

The new track surface makes a good, if strange, impression, but its condition improved with every lap. So far we see a very strong deterioration, but we can hope that by Sunday everything will be much better. I believe that as the weekend progresses we must keep a close eye on the situation and its development…’

Kimi Antonelli (20th in the first session): “Unfortunately, the training ended very quickly for me due to an accident, which was quite serious. The g-forces reached 52g and I sincerely apologise to the team and George for the extra work for everyone.

I simply made the mistake of attacking too aggressively and misjudging the conditions, when I should have built up the pace gradually. Of course this was a lesson for me, and I am still very grateful to the team for this opportunity.

In any case, it was great fun to see all the tifosi in the grandstands of the circuit when I drove my first laps around the circuit with the rest of the drivers.

It is clear that I am not in the best mood at the moment, but I will try to rest and concentrate fully to get the best out of myself in the remaining sessions of the weekend, because I have two Formula 2 races ahead of me, in which I will try to show a good result.”