Kimi Raikkonen followed up his improved showing in Belgium two weekends ago with a strong opening day in Friday's practice for the Italian Grand Prix.
The Finn, world champion in 2007, gave the Ferrari fans reason to cheer by securing third place ahead of team-mate two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso at the end of the afternoon's second free practice session.
Only the two Mercedes men, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, were ahead of them - a scenario they had expected, even if the team had warned fans to expect a major struggle throughout the weekend.
"That was a very busy day, but a positive one," said Raikkonen.
"We made the most of every minute available to us in both sessions, managing to try everything we had on our programme.
"In the morning, we concentrated on assessing different aero configurations, in search of the best level of down-force and then, in the afternoon, we opted for an intermediate solution that seemed to produce the best results on both compounds."
Alonso echoed Raikkonen's feelings, suggesting that Ferrari can be strong on both low and high fuel loads.
"I'm happy with the work we did on set-up and tyres, especially with my time on a heavy fuel load," he said.
Source: AFP
