Vitantonio Liuzzi says the high-speed nature of Monza has enabled HRT to close in on the rest of the Formula 1 field, admitting that his team has reduced the deficit to its main rivals at the historic circuit this weekend. The Italian ended the first day of his home event in 21st place, comfortably ahead of Marussia Virgin Racing’s Jérôme d'Ambrosio and only three tenths behind the latter’s German team-mate Timo Glock.
"It was a pretty good first day in Monza, just how I wanted to get my home Grand Prix underway," explained Liuzzi. "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 setup work in the morning and worked on understanding the Soft tyres in the afternoon, so we got some valid information. I think we have a good balance on long runs but need to work on our single lap pace tomorrow morning. Everybody did a good job and I think we can have a good weekend but we must keep on working hard."
Meanwhile, team-mate Daniel Ricciardo endured a troublesome afternoon session, losing a substantial amount of track time due to an early electrical problem.
"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," said the Australian. "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."
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:24.010 | 37 |
| 2. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:24.046 | 21 |
| 3. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 01:24.347 | 39 |
| 4. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:24.366 | 33 |
| 5. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:24.433 | 31 |
| 6. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:24.468 | 32 |
| 7. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:24.508 | 30 |
| 8. | S. Perez | Sauber | 01:25.097 | 39 |
| 9. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 01:25.182 | 37 |
| 10. | B. Senna | Lotus Renault | 01:25.325 | 38 |
| Full results | ||||
| Vitantonio Liuzzi | |||
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| Daniel Ricciardo | |||
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| More Daniel Ricciardo photos | |||
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