A few teams look very quick: McLaren, its extremely closeLEWIS HAMILTONMP4-27A-04FP1         1m25.944s (+0.522s)             30 laps                    6th

FP2         1m25.290s                              32 laps                    1stMonza is a beautiful circuit and the whole place has such great history you really feel it as soon as you drive through the gates. And, of course, its an absolutely stunning place on which to drive the speeds are incredible and, when you get the flow right, it feels simply amazing. Its very, very quick.Its somewhat deceptive, too: a map of the track makes it look quite simple, but its actually incredibly technical. Its also bumpy, which means its incredibly difficult to nail those final thousandths on a quick lap.And thats really what today has been all about: were trying to fine-tune the balance and find the tiniest amounts of time. Its extremely tight.Overall, today has been quite productive, and everything has gone smoothly. Hopefully, were not in a bad position, although there are still things we can improve on the car for tomorrow.JENSON BUTTONMP4-27A-02FP1         1m25.422s (+0.301s)             29 laps                    2ndFP2         1m25.328s (+0.038s)             35 laps                    2ndMonza is so different from anywhere else we drive. The straightline speeds are incredibly high in fact there are four points around the track where we hit 200mph [322km/h]. Its been satisfying to get some dry running under our belts today, because we were able to gather a lot of useful information.We tried a few different directions with set-up this afternoon and some were better than others but well decide what works best before FP3 tomorrow and well make the necessary tweaks to get the balance right. Im pretty comfortable with the car; you always want more, but weve done a reasonably good job today.Looking at the data, there are quite a few teams out there that look quick too: its very close and thats going to make it an interesting race.MARTIN WHITMARSH

Team principal, Vodafone McLaren MercedesTheres always a special magic in the air when the Formula 1 circus arrives in Monza and today felt no different. Managing the perfect trade-off between drag and downforce is always a tricky balancing act here, and, while weve still to perfect the set-up well choose to run for the remainder of the weekend, were pleased with the good progress weve made so far, and the useful amount of data weve successfully gathered.Inevitably, our focus now turns to that data, and processing it in order to make the wisest changes for tomorrow. Both Lewis and Jenson were pleased with their cars, but its satisfying that both also feel they can extract more from the package.Nevertheless, were mindful that the competition is snapping at our heels, and that there are a number of teams which could emerge tomorrow as favourites for victory.Additionally, moving away from what happened on track here today, and speaking more generally, it's worth noting that Jenson's victory in Belgium was our second win on the trot, Lewis having triumphed in Hungary.

That's satisfying for a number of reasons first because, in achieving that feat, we became the first team to have won two grands prix successively so far this season, and, second, because we accomplished that milestone on two circuits, Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps, whose comparative downforce set-up characteristics differ very markedly.

So it would appear that our car is not only quick, but also quick on a wide variety of circuits. And that augurs well not only for our prospects of victory here at super-fast Monza, where you may be well sure we'll be aiming for a hat-trick of successive wins, but also for the remainder of the season."