World Champion Lewis Hamilton conceded he needs to up his game at Mugello after trailing Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas through Friday practice.
Bottas led the way during both free practice sessions at the new-for-2020 Mugello track while Hamilton finished fourth in the morning, improving to second in the afternoon.
“It’s definitely a real challenge,” said Hamilton. [I’m] not that great at it yet, but we’re working on it.
“[There’s] not a huge amount of changes I need to do to the car at the moment. As a racing driver at times there’s just no point changing the car as you’re not driving well enough.
“You’ve got to get to the point that you’re at the limit and then you can tweak it, there’s areas that I’ve got to make a big change but I’ll make that, hopefully improve that for tomorrow.”
Hamilton believes there is still a substantial number of places where he can improve his driving.
“I’m trying to push it to the limit but I think there are sections, like the last sector obviously I got that sorted, and pretty happy with that,” he said.
“In the first and second sector are a little bit weak for me, but particularly the first sector, so there’s plenty to come from that section.
“Max [Verstappen] and Valtteri are very, very quick through there, a lot of studying tonight and hopefully rectify that for tomorrow.”