Team Lotus have had better Fridays this season. Trulli finished the day as 20th and Heikki Kovalainen was 21st. The Anglo-Malaysian team chose to run Karun Chandhok in the first free practice. The team's third driver did a 1:30.148 and was 1.5 slower than his teammates. It was the slowest time of the day. They do however expect to make progress overnight.

Karun Chandhok
"I’m pretty pleased with the performance this morning. The car felt OK from the first laps and it was good to get some more time under my belt in the cockpit. Friday mornings are always pretty limited running, particularly when the track’s got that light covering of dust on it, but today I was focusing on some aero evaluation and we got through that program so I think I did ok today."

Heikki Kovalainen
"That wasn’t too bad but we can definitely improve. This morning’s session was brought to an early end with a sensor issue on the gearbox and I was given the instruction to pull over when the engine temperatures started rising. This afternoon we worked on both sets of tyres and I think the softs are ok but we weren’t really able to get the best out the mediums which gave us some areas to work on tonight on improving overall grip."

Jarno Trulli
"That was a trouble free Friday afternoon for me but honestly I’m not all that happy with the balance of the car at the moment. There’s quite a lot of understeer on turn-in and through the exit of the corners and we need to work on dialling that out to find more speed. There’s definitely more to come and we’ve shown all season we can take good steps forward from Friday to Saturday, so I think we’ll be ok tomorrow."

HRT's Daniel Ricciardo was happy to get some time in the second free practice after the team discovered some electrical problems. In the end he set the 25th fastest time of the day and did 31 laps. His teammate did a little better: Liuzzi was 23rd and lapped his home circuit 58 times.

Daniel Ricciardo
"The morning session went as planned and we got through the established programme. I understand the car better and how it behaves on track with every day that goes by. On the first lap in the afternoon session we had an electrical issue and had to spend around an hour in the garage to solve it. The mechanics did a good job under pressure in a short amount of time which allowed me to get back on track at the end of the session to do a few laps. Obviously, I would have preferred to have done 20 or 30 laps but at least I was able to get back out."

"I have a lot to learn from Tonio’s experience and, realistically, if you look at his times and compare them to Lotus and Virgin, then we were pretty close. The F111 adapts better to this track than to others, so I think this could be a good weekend, but now what we have to do is work hard for tomorrow."

Vitantonio Liuzzi
"It was a pretty good first day in Monza, just how I wanted to get my home grand prix underway. This track suits our car better than others because there aren’t any high speed corners where a lack of downforce tends to cost us. So we’ve closed the gap quite a bit with our main rivals."

"We did some set-up work in the morning and worked on understanding the soft tyres in the afternoon so, overall, we got some valid information. I think we have a good balance on lung runs but need to work on our single lap pace tomorrow morning. Everybody did a good job today and I think we can have a good weekend but we must keep on working hard."

Sauber kicked off their weekend with the eighth and ninth fastest time. The Swiss team was very happy with the result and is looking to find even more time over night.

Sergio Perez
"For me this was a very positive day. Actually it was better than I expected, which is good news. When I was on new soft tyres the track was a bit dirty, so this makes me hope I can improve in qualifying. My car feels well balanced, especially with the soft tyres, and also on long runs."

Kamui Kobayashi
"Having stable weather and track conditions was very useful today, and enabled us to do proper set-up work in both sessions. For me the car isn’t perfect yet, but I can see that we have the potential to improve the balance and the lap time. I’m looking forward to tomorrow."

Scuderia Toro Rosso had a reasonable start of their home Grand Prix. The Red Bull youngsters finished the day as 14th and 18th. The day wasn't exactly problem free: Buemi made a mistake in FP2 and was out of the running after only 5 laps.

Jaime Alguersuari
"I am very happy to be back racing at Monza which is a great track, with plenty of high speed sections and heavy braking to make it exciting. In both sessions today, I got a good feeling from the car and I think we are continuing to show good form, with some improvement when running in qualifying trim. The whole team did a good job today and there is more potential to come out of the car tomorrow and on Sunday. If we continue to work well through the weekend, I think we can be fighting on level terms with Force India and Sauber again on Sunday. We experienced the two DRS zones for the first time today and you can see from comparing the top speeds with and without the system, that it makes a huge difference to top speed, so it will be the key to overtaking in the race, although it will be less important in qualifying. There is quite a difference between the two Pirelli compounds, while degradation is not that bad and I think we can get more out of the Softs tomorrow."

Sebastien Buemi
"This morning went well, as we tried out various things on the car to see how it felt around Monza, so overall it was a positive session. However, the afternoon was less successful as I only managed a handful of laps. I made a mistake and hit the wall, so I am sorry for giving the team a lot of work now to repair the damage. But, as they say, tomorrow is another day and this evening I will be working hard with the engineers to see what we can do for the rest of the weekend. In terms of tyres, not much to say and I only ran with the Prime so far. The DRS worked well and running the car in the Monza-specific low downforce configuration was interesting and enjoyable."

Sam Michael, Technical Director
"Today we evaluated different rear wing levels over long runs to set our level correctly for the race. With high temperatures predicted all weekend, we also had to check all the cooling systems onboard. Both the medium and soft tyres are working well, but there is some blistering evident that we'll have to manage during the race."

Rubens Barrichello
"We weren’t fast enough today unfortunately. We need to work hard tonight to see what we can do this weekend."

Pastor Maldonado
"It was a hard day and it’s been very hot. We completed our programme so that is positive but we need to work hard to get a good balance for qualifying and the race."

The Mercedes GP drivers had mixed fortunes today. At the front it was Michael Schumacher and at the rear it was Nico Rosberg. Rosberg says that he focused on the race: "I didn't have an ideal session this afternoon as we had some issues, particularly with the KERS problem at the start of the session. However by the end of the day, we have learned quite a lot for the race, and importantly I was able to get used to the track. Monza is a very different circuit from many others with the high speed sectors and low downforce corners and it takes a bit of time to find your rhythm here."

Schumacher was happy to return to the home of the Tifosi: "It's always a special feeling to be here in Monza. It began yesterday when I did my lap of the circuit, saw the tifosi and enjoyed the particular atmosphere of this track. Then going out in the car today, it's nice to feel what comes across from the fans - it reminds me of being at my home races. In terms of the character of the circuit, we are usually good on braking and traction, and there are not so many of the medium and high-speed corners in which we have not been so strong this year. It certainly looks good in terms of my position today, and I'm pleased with that; but we will only find out tomorrow what it is really worth."

We have combined the results of today's practice sessions. There were a few drivers who didn't improve on their first free practice times. One of those drivers was Lewis Hamilton. The Brit was overall fastest despite not being on top in the second session. Most laps were driven today by Sergio Perez (67). The least laps were driven by Sebastien Buemi (30).

In the second free practice session it was Sebastian Vettel who managed to set the fastest time. The German was only 0.03 seconds faster than Lewis Hamilton. Behind them was Michael Schumacher. The Mercerdes driver managed to squeeze out an impressive third place. His teammate Nico Rosberg had problems: his fastest time was a full 5 seconds slower. Ferrari was on P4 and P5 and were just half a second behind the fastest time of Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton managed to move to the top of the time sheets in the first free practice at the Monza circuit. The Brit was almost a full second faster than his teammate Jenson Button. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber followed the McLaren pair on P3 and P4. The Ferrari's were only in 7th and 8th in FP1. Jerome d'Ambrosio and Heikki Kovalainen had to park their cars because of engine and gearbox troubles.

Due to a scheduling conflict we won't be able to provide you today (Friday) with the coverage you are used to. Everything should be back to normal on Saturday. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Bruno Senna will replace Nick Heidfeld as Lotus Renault F1 driver. In a statement the team announced that further details will be released today. Bruno Senna has been third driver for the team since the start of the season. Last year the Brazilian was race driver at HRT. Senna drove for the first time at a race weekend in Hungary.



Nick Heidfeld joined Renault as a replacement for Robert Kubica. The Pole was severely injured in a rally accident in Italy before the start of the season.

Heikki Kovalainen is like most other drivers a fan of the Belgian Spa-Francorchamps circuit. The Fin says that he is really excited to travel again to the Belgian Ardennes: "After a really good break in Finland it’ll be good to get back to work. I’m feeling better than ever and it’s always exciting heading to Spa. Eau Rouge is, of course, the corner everyone talks about and while it is still flat-out it’s actually not that hard for us now, but it’s still a big thrill. Any corner you take at 300km is pretty quick so you hang on the wheel pretty hard so that you don’t get any snap out of the corner, build up a good speed down then you feel all that compression as the car bottoms out through the corner and then you’re up the hill. It’s still very exciting!"

"It’s been said so many times before but Spa is what a racetrack should be - hardcore corners, massive speed, overtaking opportunities and passionate fans, and, being Spa, anything can happen with the weather. Actually, it’s not just Spa this year - we’ve had rain following us all season so in Spa maybe we’ll have a hot and sunny weekend for once! I doubt it… it’s almost certain it will rain somewhere on the circuit at some point over the weekend and that could well be an opportunity for our team. We just have to keep pushing and make sure we’re in the hunt if there’s an opportunity to be grabbed, work hard all weekend and keep taking little steps forward."

Last year Kovalainen finished 16th in Spa.

After the long summer break we finally return to Formula 1 racing this week. The teams return to one of the favourite tracks of many drivers and fans: Spa-Francorchamps. One of those drivers is Vitantonio Liuzzi: "Spa Francorchamps is every driver's favourite circuit, because of its high-speed nature and the challenge it represents. Our car should be better suited to tracks like this, so I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a bit of an anniversary because on August 28, 2004 I finished the Formula 3000 race on the second step of the podium having started from pole. For me, Spa is the nicest track of all!"

His teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, agrees with Liuzzi and looks forward to driving a F1 car through the Belgian Hills: "Among several memories from my 55 career podiums, I started from pole and won one of the last Formula 3 British races in Spa in 2009, so it's a circuit that I know. In the small formula cars it gets boring because you run out of power on all those long straights, but I'm really looking forward to driving a Formula One car there. The weather is always a question mark. I love the middle sector and its great flow. It's one of the best circuits and should suit us well”.

Last year only 1 HRT car managed to finish. Sakon Yamamoto finished 20th. Bruno Senna failed to finish and retired with suspension problems.

Fuel is what drives a Formula 1 car. Without it the car literally wouldn't go anywhere. Nowadays most major oil companies have partnerships to provide teams with special fuels and lubricants. One of these oil companies is Shell. The Anglo-Dutch company has a rich history in Formula 1 and a partnership with Ferrari that stretches back to the 1950's. Recently Ferrari and Shell tested what happens when they use their normal road car fuel instead of the special Formula 1 fuels. The result? It's not too bad. Check it out:



Note that they used a 2009 Ferrari because they can't use their current Ferrari F1 car because of testing limitations.

Yesterday Bernie Ecclestone spoke to the media about a possible move of the United States Grand Prix to November. The CEO of FOM said that a move would allow the circuit to be completed in time and would see the race move out of the warm Texas summer. The organization of the race warns however that nothing is final yet, but is happy to host the race later in the year: "We have been hoping for a late season race date since this project began and see this as a very positive sign from Formula One that it wants its U.S. event to be an over-the-top success,"” said Tavo Hellmund, Chairman of the United States Grand Prix.

"“Mr. Ecclestone has dozens of competing issues to consider when it comes to the race calendar. He has to balance the interests of the teams with those of the promoters and even consider the unique situation of each host country. To put our race near the end of the schedule puts us in a prime spot to welcome the world next year – and I could not be more personally and professionally appreciative."”