• Italian Grand Prix

Marussia braced for tough weekend

ESPN Staff
September 5, 2012 « Domenicali eyes 'very special points' at Monza | McLaren denies Hamilton leaving for Mercedes »
Timo Glock managed to finish 15th ahead of Heikki Kovalainen at Spa despite Pastor Maldonado tipping him in to a spin © Sutton Images
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Marussia is bracing itself for a tough weekend at the Italian Grand Prix after admitting that the Monza circuit does not suit its car.

The team had an encouraging race at Spa last weekend when both Timo Glock and Charles Pic managed to beat Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham. However, Monza requires a special low-downforce configuration and team principal John Booth says Marussia's performance in Canada is an indication that the car will be weak in Italy.

"We're in a good place right now and last weekend's performance in Spa boosted everyone's spirits," Booth said. "We do need to temper that, however, with the realistic expectations we have for this race, because we aren't simply picking up where we left off.

"Monza is quite a different challenge as its high speed characteristics call for a low downforce set-up and we know from Canada that our car does not work as well at this type of track. We had so many areas to focus our attentions on this season and although we have seen good progress in most areas, Montreal and Monza were always going to be two races where we may not fare so favourably."

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