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Team Summary:
After some early rain the track had dried as the final practice session for
the 2018 Italian GP got underway. Drivers would come out running on a mix of
tyres from supersoft to medium. The first time would come from Alonso with a
1m:25.734 followed by Vandoorne. A 1m:24.321 from Alonso with only the
McLaren's having set a lap time. Hulkenberg was now second with the top
three on the soft tyre. Raikkonen would come out on the supersoft tyre as
Ericsson went fourth. The two Mercedes cars and Vettel were also out on the
supersoft tyre. Raikkonen would go quickest with a 1m:21.484 with Hamilton
moving into second. Vettel would have a lockup appearing to flat spotting
his tyres. But Vettel was able to continue and would set a 1m:22.005 to be
third.
Ricciardo was now sixth behind Sainz. Bottas was now fourth while the
Williams drivers after their first flying laps were 10th and 13th. As others
went quicker they would drop down the order to be 15th and 18th. At the
front Hamilton had gone quickest with a 1m:21.392 followed by Raikkonen,
Vettel, Verstappen, Bottas, Ricciardo, Perez, Ocon, Grosjean, and Sainz
tenth. The Williams drivers were now 17th and 18th with just over twenty
minutes remaining. Vettel would return and would set a quick middle sector
to go quickest with a 1m:21.035. Raikkonen would go second moving ahead of
Hamilton. With seventeen minutes remaining the track was now quite empty as
Vettel went even faster with a 1m:20.509 to be 0.6 ahead of his team-mate.
Raikkonen would also improve to be just 0.173 behind Vettel after a second
run from both Ferrari's.
More drivers were returning for their qualifying simulations with Hamilton
going second with a 1m:20.676 and Bottas was only fourth. Verstappen was
fifth followed by Ricciardo, Grosjean, Ocon, Perez and Alonso tenth.
Hamilton would improve with a 1m:20.590 to be only 0.08 behind Vettel.
Magnussen was now sixth followed by Ocon and Ricciardo. With the end of the
session the top ten would be Vettel, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Bottas,
Verstappen, Magnussen, Ocon, Ricciardo, Leclerc and Grosjean. The Williams
drivers would finish in 14th and 15th, a very encouraging result.
Lance Stroll:
With five minutes of the session completed Lance would take to the track
also using the soft tyre. Lance would pit after a single lap. Lance was now
out with thirty seven minutes remaining and his first lap would see him set
a slow 1m:32.586 after an issue in the middle sector. His next lap would see
an improvement setting a time of 1m:24.449 to be 13th. He would drop to 18th
but he was on the soft tyre. Lance would pit after a seven lap run. Lance
would return this time on the supersoft tyre. Lance would set a 1m:23.632 to
now be 18th and one place ahead of his team-mate. Lance would again improve
with a 1m:23.239 to be 15th as he pitted after a seven lap run. In his pit
he would drop to 18th. Lance would come out for a third run again on new
supersoft tyres. He would set a 1m:22.860 to be 14th. This would become 15th
as Sergey moved ahead of him.
Sergey Sirotkin:
Sergey would be the first Williams to take to the track running on the soft
tyre. He would pit after a single installation lap. With just over forty
minutes remaining Sergey would return running on new supersoft tyres. Sergey
would set a 1m:25.056 to be fifth dropping to ninth. But Sergey was able to
set a 1m:23.954 to move into eighth. He would drop to tenth approaching the
half way point of the session. This would become 13th as others went
quicker. He would improve with a 1m:23.795 but was now 11th. Again he would
drop down the order to be 16th as he continued a longer run on the supersoft
tyres with twenty five minutes remaining in the session. Sergey would also
pit after a twelve lap run indicating that he was running a lot of fuel in
his first run. Sergey was now 19th but was yet to come out for a second run.
With ten minutes remaining Sergey would return and would set a 1m:23.100 to
be 14th, dropping to 15th. This would become 16th as Lance moved ahead of
him. But Sergey would set a 1M;22.778 to be 12th but would drop to 14th. |
