Kimi Räikkönen was an early casualty of the wet weather at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Friday morning, with the Alfa Romeo Racing driver spinning into the barriers at Parabolica.
Despite this, the Finn was not too downbeat about it as with the conditions as wet and tricky as they were, they did not miss as much running in comparison to their rivals as they would have done had it been dry.
Räikkönen said it was also a difficult afternoon as the weather continued to play havoc, but it was good to get out on track and complete thirty-five laps, with the former World Champion finishing fourteenth fastest overall.
“Not a great start with my crash in FP1 but to be honest we didn’t really lose precious time as the mixed conditions continued and therefore no one could do any proper work,” said Räikkönen.
“Same story in the afternoon, so even if the car felt good and we put in some good lap times we have to wait until tomorrow to see where exactly we are.”
Team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi also suffered a spin on Friday, this time at turn one, but the Italian was able to keep going and complete twenty-two laps in the morning session, ending eleventh fastest.
He also completed thirty-five laps in the afternoon, ending just over half a second down on Räikkönen in seventeenth, with the former Scuderia Ferrari test driver aiming for a strong performance in Qualifying on Saturday.
“The conditions weren’t ideal today: the rain made it a bit tricky but in the end it’s the same for everybody and it was good to do some laps in the wet,” said Giovinazzi. “It’ll be interesting to see what the weather does tomorrow and on Sunday, but our focus won’t change: we just need to work hard to get where we want.
“Qualifying will be tight once again. We will push to find the best setup tonight and to get a good result in qualifying.”
