Nico Rosberg emerged bloodied but unbowed as he vied with Lewis Hamilton for the title of the fastest man in Monza in practice for the Italian Grand Prix.
It was honours even with Hamilton topping the first session and Rosberg claiming the second session to set up an intriguing confrontation on the fastest track in Formula One.
Their collision in Belgium almost a fortnight ago has electrified F1 with fans expecting a fight to the finish here on this magnificent track set in Monza’s royal park.
Rosberg showed no sign of cracking under the pressure of being punished for clipping his team-mate’s car in Spa, although Hamilton lost an hour of practice time in the afternoon when his car refused to fire up because of electrical problems. He was straight on the pace, though, and looking determined to make amends for Belgium, where he failed to score, while Rosberg widened his lead over him in the world championship to 29 points.
It is all to play for and it seems that the front row of the grid here will comprise of two silver Mercedes. The question is which one will be on pole position and which one will be first through the Variante del Rettifilo, the first kink that they will approach at almost 180mph.
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By then, the talk of the incident in Spa which has dominated Monza for the past 24 hours will be replaced by action on the track.
Daniel Ricciardo stole the honours last time out in Spa, thanks to the outcome of the scrap between the Mercedes team-mates but he had a difficult day in practice, finishing tenth in the second practice session, three places behind Sebastian Vettel, his team-mate.
The Ferraris put on a bit of a show for the sparse clumps of tifosi dotted around the vast Monza circuit. Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest in the afternoon, with Fernando Alonso, for once, following his Finnish team-mate in fourth. The home team are anxious to turn a corner this season but they will worry that they do not have the pace to challenge a Williams team, who have produced a car that is both quick and nimble.
Claire Williams, the team’s deputy team principal, is hoping Monza’s high-speed straights will give her team the chance of a maiden victory this season and Valtteri Bottas lurked in fifth place behind the twin Ferraris in the afternoon.
But all eyes will remain on the two Mercedes drivers, particularly after the Mercedes management made it clear that they will not allow scrapping on the track to ruin their domination of this season. Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes Motorsport, went as far as to warn that one of them will have to go if the pair cannot get on - an extreme threat but one that one academic believes may be the only answer.
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Dr Paolo Aversa, a Formula One expert at the Cass Business School in London says that two “superstar” drivers cannot live together in the same team.
“Toto Wolff now realises the internal conflict between Hamilton and Rosberg could lead to Daniel Ricciardo finishing between the two Silver Arrows teammates,” he said.
“It looks increasingly unlikely that both Hamilton and Rosberg will be lining up for Mercedes next season. Their on and off track clashes are symptomatic of two roosters in the henhouse, which is statistically proven to decrease performance.”