The Formula 1 Italian GP will be held in Monza for the next three years. And today, Saturday, the tests begin in view of tomorrow's race, Sunday 4th September. Ferrari hopes to redeem itself and give its supporters a victory after so many expectations that have failed. But in free practice on Friday afternoon the Mercedes dominated, led by Lewis Hamilton who set the best time (1'22"801) and Nico Rosberg.
The renewal was officially announced at the Brianza racetrack by the president of ACI, Angelo Sticchi Damiani, and by the owner of F1 Bernie Ecclestone. The contract "will be signed in London in the next few hours, for jurisdictional reasons it cannot be signed in Italy", said Sticchi Damiani on Friday as he opened the ceremony also attended by the president of the Lombardy Region, Roberto Maroni, and that of the FIA, Jean Todt. In the coming days, after the Italian GP, the signatures will be affixed to the contract between Aci and Fom, Bernie Ecclestone's company that controls Formula 1. It is a document of about seventy pages, on which the parties' lawyers have found the definitive agreement in the morning in Monza. “I hope that the Italian GP will be held in Monza for the next hundred years” commented Ecclestone.
