George ended Friday practice in P5 at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

George began FP1 on a set of the Hard Pirellis, setting a 1.27.017 on his first run to move him into P16.

Completing 12 laps on the Hard tyres, George set his best time of 1.24.775 and take him into P8 before pitting for the Softs.

George made full use of the Soft compound to jump up the order into P2 with a 1.22.689, his best lap time of the day, before being knocked down into P3 by Carlos Sainz Jr where he ended the first session of the weekend.

Starting FP2 on the Medium tyres, George set his first flying lap of 1.23.250 to take him into P5.

George put in nine laps on the Medium compound before switching onto the Soft tyres for the second half of the session.

Putting in his best time of the day on the Soft tyres, George ended the day in P5 with a 1.23.386 with 24 laps under his belt.

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George Russell – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team Driver

Bit of a strange day, FP1 was looking pretty strong but then Ferrari and Red Bull seemed to take a step forward in FP2 and we went a little backwards so we have work to do tonight to understand that. Generally speaking, we're lacking a little electrical deployment here, we're similar to Red Bull but Ferrari seem to have the upper hand on deployment which might be tricky in a race scenario.
If you nail the tow around here in qualifying, it will definitely make a difference but it's high-risk-high-reward so not something we're putting a lot of emphasis on. Qualifying sessions are where you learn the most about the car and the tyres, and they've been the sessions we've struggled most with this year, so I think we'll both be going out tomorrow like any other quali day and trying to nail the basics.

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