The Manor Marussia F1 Team enjoyed a strong start to this weekend's Formula 1 Gran Premio D'Italia 2015 at the fabled Autodromo Nazionale Monza near Milan.

In pushing hard for continual improvement with its current package, the team were able to put Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi in closer contention with the McLarens directly ahead, on this occasion finishing the day in P17 and P18 respectively, sandwiched between Alonso and Button, and with fastest lap times of 1:28.201 and 1:28.439.

Will Stevens: "A pretty good start to the weekend, for me and the team, so I'm feeling happy. It's still quite early in the weekend but it's nice to see us performing well here and we seem to have a pretty good set-up from which to make progress. We're a little closer to the McLarens, and hopefully we can keep in touch with them in qualifying and the race, which will make Sunday even more interesting."

Roberto Merhi: "Generally, we've had a really strong first day as a team. From my point of view, I think there is some room to improve and for things to be very close, not just between me and my team-mate, but also with our team and the McLarens. We seem to be a bit closer here and Monza is the type of circuit where we can demonstrate that progress, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

John Booth, Team Principal: "A very positive outcome to our first day of running, as we find ourselves sitting between the two McLarens in P17 and P18. Both drivers did a good job today to get the most from the package here. There are a few areas for improvement, but when we get on top of these we should be in a good position from which to attack the rest of the weekend."

Check out our Friday gallery, here.