Rain greeted the teams for the opening day of the final European round of the 2008 championship, at Monza on Friday.

During free practice one, teams were forced to run on either intermediate tyres or wet tyres, which meant that they got no dry running during the one and a half hour session. As a result, the number of laps that were completed by Scuderia Toro Rosso was limited to 33 laps between the two drivers, with Sebastien Bourdais completing the most laps (20). The session was red flagged five minutes from the end of the session as a thunderstorm flooded the track.

Free practice two finally saw some dry running for the teams after about 30 minutes, when the track dried up. Sebastien Bourdais was the first driver to go out on dry tyres to test the track with a time of 1 min 32 seconds, which was lowered throughout the session. Free practice two saw 74 laps being covered by the two Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers, as they prepared for qualifying and the race.

Sebastian Vettel:

"Because of the rain, we did not get all of our programme completed in the way we would have wished, but that's the same for everyone. All in all, it was a good day in tricky conditions, as we finished with both cars in one piece! Our test here before Spa has helped us a lot, even though the track has obviously changed with the weather, so in these conditions, today it was mainly a case of getting a feel for the tyres and the circuit. Overall, we can be fairly happy. Like last weekend it seems the big unknown will be the weather."

Sebastien Bourdais:

"The track was very tricky this afternoon as there were still some damp patches. This morning in the wet, I would say we looked quite competitive and I was reasonably happy with the car. However, in the in-between and dry track conditions, I felt less comfortable and the rear of the car was moving around a lot and I was struggling a little bit. But there should be more rubber down tomorrow which will help. We tried a few set-up changes but I am not yet sure if they were a step in the right direction."

Free Practice One Results:

Free Practice Two Results

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