Michael Schumacher reckons Mercedes are "looking better" at Monza than they did in Belgium after a solid start to the weekend.
The five-time Italian Grand Prix winner turned back the clock on Friday morning when he finished the day's opening practice session at the top of the timesheets.
However, any chance Schumacher had of doing the double ended in FP2 when his DRS failed, leaving him without the speed advantage.
He still ended the session inside the top ten, 0.804s down on Lewis Hamilton's P1 time.
"I am quite happy with the practice sessions as we achieved a lot of reasonable work with regards to long runs which was our main focus today," said the seven-time World Champ.
"We have a different aero package for Monza which seems to work well so it seems to be looking better than in the last races.
"During the sessions, we made progress as well so I am curious to have a look at the data we collected and learn the full picture."
He added: "It's always nice to be back in Monza as I am still so warmly welcomed by all the tifosi.
"As I said earlier, I would like to say thank you for that and hope we can put on a good show tomorrow and in the race on Sunday."
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