Williams drivers unhappy with pace

Williams has been struggling to score points all season © Sutton Images

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Both Williams drivers came away from Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix downbeat after the cars failed to trouble the top ten.

Barrichello was 13th in FP1 but by the afternoon practice session had dropped to 15th, roughly 0.4s off the rest of the midfield.

"We weren't fast enough today unfortunately," he said. "We need to work hard tonight to see what we can do this weekend."

Pastor Maldonado has said before the weekend that he was hoping to repeat his points-scoring performance at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, but he also struggled and was off the pace of his team-mate.

"It was a hard day and it's been very hot," he said. "We completed our programme so that is positive but we need to work hard to get a good balance for qualifying and the race.

Technical director Sam Michael also revealed that the heat was causing some blistering on the team's Pirelli tyres.

"Today we evaluated different rear wing levels over long runs to set our level correctly for the race," he said. "With high temperatures predicted all weekend, we also had to check all the cooling systems onboard. Both the medium and soft tyres are working well, but there is some blistering evident that we'll have to manage during the race."

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