Image source, Getty Images

Nico Rosberg had a jet sitting on a runway all set to leave at the drop of the hat in Belgium last time out, with his wife expecting their first child at any moment. 

Well, Rosberg junior kindly picked the time between that race and this one to enter the world, with Nico becoming a dad on Monday.

Jennie Gow tried to get a name for the new arrival on Thursday, with Nico giving little away, saying only that they are trying to decide on the spelling of the name before announcing it.

Time to get used to changing a few of these, Nico...

Image source, Google

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

“The situation surrounding Pirelli’s recommendations on the tyres this weekend is confusing, to say the least. The company put out a statement saying they had found no structural problems with the tyres and attributing Sebastian Vettel’s failure to wear, they now say it was down to the ‘combined effect of debris and prolonged usage’.

“Arriving at Monza, Pirelli told the teams that they were imposing new minimum tyre pressures, an increase of more than 20% front and rear, on precautionary grounds. But when the teams and drivers raised their eyebrows at that, the limits were brought down - and will be brought down again. Which begs the question, if the limits were not necessary, why introduce them in the first place. And if their research suggested they were necessary, why has that been over-ruled by outside forces?

“It’s hard not to think Fernando Alonso hit the nail on the head on Thursday when he said: ‘They are always right because they are the experts on their product… Nevertheless, to be in F1 with the technology we have in our cars, to have these kinds of limits, is quite strange.’”

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

First practice gets under way at 09:00 BST and you can listen to commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra five minutes before.

Image source, Reuters

Sebastian Vettel's tyre blowout was not the only one to happen in Belgium, with Nico Rosberg's tyre failing in spectacular fashion in practice. 

Both are considerably more relaxed about the situation now.

"We want to make progress and keep making progress. The feeling I got when I spoke to the Pirelli engineers is more important than any press release," said Vettel.

Meanwhile, Rosberg added: "It is being handled with extreme precision and a lot of energy is going into it, and I am happy to see that, of course, because it requires it. I am confident we will be driving safely here."

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

"Phew. The cars haven’t even been out on track yet and it’s already been quite a weekend here. That was inevitable following the tyre blow-outs in Spa, but even so the story as to how that would affect this weekend changed several times in the course of a hectic afternoon on Thursday. 

"Now the dust has settled, the teams will be running with higher tyre pressures and reduced wheel camber on precautionary grounds. As Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton pointed out, the tyres have never been run at those pressures before. This is a journey into the unknown.”

Image source, Getty Images

Hello! Welcome to our coverage of practice for the Italian Grand Prix.

It is almost two whole weeks since Lewis Hamilton breezed to his sixth race win of the season.

Since then Nico Rosberg has become a dad and Hamilton has gone for a new look. We'll get to all of that soon enough.

Tyres dominated the weekend in Belgium and they have once again been the focus of attention in Italy...

Image source, Getty Images

"What’s the answer? Same as every time BEEEEEP. If this happened earlier BEEEEEP."

The old 'bleepy-noise to mask swear words machine-thing (TM)' went into overdrive after the Belgian Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel embarked on an expletive-laden rant at Pirelli, his tyre having blown out spectacularly late in the race.

The German had two weeks to mull over the incident before arriving at Monza for this weekend's race. Has he managed to simmer down?