MIchelin teams on top after Friday Monza practice

Pedro de la Rosa (McLaren Mercedes/Michelin) was fastest overall on the opening day of the Italian Grand Prix meeting at Monza. The team's test driver lapped the 5.793-kilometre (3.599-mile) parkland track in 1m 20.201s this morning, 0.33s quicker than Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta's pace-setting lap in the second session. Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren/Michelin) was third on aggregate and fastest of the regular racers.

Michelin drivers set the top 12 times - and six of the company's partner teams featured in the top 10. Kimi Raikkonen (Team McLaren Mercedes) was fourth ahead of Mark Webber (BMW WilliamsF1 Team), Nick Heidfeld (BMW WilliamsF1 Team), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Red Bull Racing), Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), Takuma Sato (BAR-Honda), Fernando Alonso (Renault), and Christian Klien (Red Bull Racing).

Michelin partner Red Bull Racing has confirmed that American Scott Speed will be its official test and reserve driver in 2006.

Current Red Bull driver Christian Klien was fined $2,000 this morning for speeding in the pit lane.

Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin Motorsport Director:

"We evaluated a number of ideas for the very particular circumstances at Monza and our various compounds have produced interesting - and very satisfying - results.

"While it is clear that our 'option' tyre is a little bit faster over a single lap, we need to pore over the data to see how it will fare over 53 on Sunday. We have plenty of information at our disposal because our partners have completed plenty of long runs during the two free practice sessions.

"Track conditions are not radically different from those we encountered during last week's test session here. Some teams have reported a little more understeer, but generally we appear to be in very good shape. Things really couldn't have gone any better today."