Force with Sutil at Monza

Force India's Adrian Sutil set the fastest time in practice for the Italian Grand Prix on Friday.

German confirms Force India's Belgium pace no fluke

Adrian Sutil has demonstrated that Force India's pace in Belgium was not a one-off after he set the fastest time in practice for the Italian Grand Prix on Friday. The German driver lapped the 5.793-km Monza track in a time of one minute 23.924 seconds, just over a hundredth of a second quicker than the fastest time of the morning session, set by Lewis Hamilton. "The car was working perfectly and we can be very happy about the result. It was a very, very good time that came as a result of some good work, a great set-up and getting the tyres to work well," Sutil said. "We didn't try specifically to go fastest but if you are on top of your game and the car is working well there's no reason why you couldn't be P1 at the end of the session." Meanwhile, making his debut appearance in a Ferrari following his pole position and second-place finish for Force India at the Belgian Grand Prix, Giancarlo Fisichella finished bottom of the timesheets, his time being over 1.6 seconds slower than that of his former team-mate. The Italian had gone eighth quickest in the morning, albeit after deciding to switch from harder compound tyres favoured by most runners onto the softer option but fell down to 20th and last in the afternoon, 12 places behind new team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. Romain Grosjean and Fernando Alonso were an encouraging second and third for Renault on a fraught day for the team off-track, while Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen backed up his second place in the morning with fourth fastest. BMW Sauber pair Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld ended the afternoon session fifth and seventh respectively, while Toyota's Timo Glock, who was slowest in session one, moved up to sixth.

Hamilton 11th

Hamilton himself ended the afternoon in 11th place, his time almost a second slower than his morning's best as his MP4-24 car ran with heavier fuel loads. The world champion said he was "encouraged" by his performance, adding McLaren had made "some good progress" with their overall package. Vitantonio Liuzzi, on his debut for Force India after replacing Fisichella, was 12th, just under a second behind team-mate Sutil. This year's championship contenders kept an even lower profile than in the morning, with Red Bull's Mark Webber leading the way albeit down in 14th spot. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who is limiting his practice runs in order to save engines for the rest of the season, finished 18th overall, two places behind Brawn GP's Rubens Barrichello. Championship leader Jenson Button found himself down in 19th place, 1.5secs behind Sutil and 0.7secs slower than in the morning as he, like Hamilton and Fisichella, tested out different options. Button admitted the team had fallen behind after "a couple of issues" setting up their car to work in the low downforce configuration unique to Monza. He added: "They were fixed by the end of the day which is good but we have a lot of work ahead of us. It feels very different running with such low downforce but the car has been performing reasonably well. "We need to work on the fine-tuning of the set-up overnight to ensure that I'm completely happy with the balance before qualifying." Times:
1. Adrian Sutil (GER) Force India 1:23.924, 2. Romain Grosjean (FRA) Renault 1:24.163, 3. Fernando Alonso (ESP) Renault 1:24.297, 4. Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) McLaren 1:24.482, 5. Robert Kubica (POL) BMW Sauber 1:24.622, 6. Timo Glock (GER) Toyota 1:24.634, 7. Nick Heidfeld (GER) BMW Sauber 1:24.693, 8. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) Ferrari 1:24.796, 9. Kazuki Nakajima (JPN) Williams 1:24.799, 10. Sebastien Buemi (SWI) Toro Rosso 1:24.884, 11. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) McLaren 1:24.902, 12. Vitantonio Liuzzi (ITA) Force India 1:24.921, 13. Jarno Trulli (ITA) Toyota 1:24.967, 14. Mark Webber (AUS) Red Bull 1:24.979, 15. Jaime Alguersuari (ESP) Toro Rosso 1:25.003, 16. Rubens Barrichello (BRA) Brawn 1:25.140, 17. Nico Rosberg (GER) Williams 1:25.215, 18. Sebastian Vettel (GER) Red Bull 1:25.386, 19. Jenson Button (GBR) Brawn 1:25.424, 20. Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) Ferrari 1:25.543