Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari 1-2 to set the fastest time in first free practice at Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix.
Leclerc’s time of 1m23.008s, set on medium tyres, was quick enough to pip team-mate Lewis Hamilton on a hot summer afternoon at the historic Monza circuit.
Leclerc set his time halfway through the first of three practice sessions, boosting expectations from the partisan home crowd in Italy.
Sporting a throwback livery paying tribute to Michael Schumacher’s first season with Ferrari in 1996, Ferrari came to its home track with its latest suite of upgrades. Those updates include a refined low-drag rear wing and the Scuderia’s second permitted engine upgrade that aims to help slash its power unit deficit to Mercedes.
Reigning world champion Lando Norris had been leading the early running before the session was interrupted by Colton Herta’s stricken Cadillac. The American was asked by his team to park the car with hydraulic issues, bringing out the red flag.
Test driver Herta had been hunting another superlicence point with his practice outing, but due to his lack of mileage the former IndyCar ace will not get one for his Monza run.
The session resumed with 34 minutes on the clock, with Mercedes’ George Russell dipping below Norris’ time before Leclerc took charge with a 1m23.008s on medium rubber.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Hamilton followed Leclerc through in second, shipping 0.173s to his team-mate on the same medium compound, as Russell reclaimed third with a 1m23.312s lap on soft tyres, three tenths down on the leading Ferrari.
Liam Lawson, who returned to Red Bull as regular driver Isack Hadjar continues to recover from his wrist injury, set fourth ahead of championship leader Antonelli.
Antonelli faces a back-of-the-grid penalty for a full power unit change, meaning the championship leader is fully focused on optimising his race set-up.
The Italian demoted Norris to sixth ahead of Racing Bulls man Arvid Lindblad and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto. Alpine duo Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron, performing rookie FP1 duties in Pierre Gasly’s car, rounded out the top 10.
In the second McLaren, Oscar Piastri was 11th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who received a second opportunity to fill Lawson’s temporarily vacated Racing Bulls seat.
Herta and Aron were just two of four rookie drivers out on track in FP1. Ayumu Iwasa took place in Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and Williams young driver Luke Browning got a run in Alex Albon’s car as teams took the opportunity to satisfy one of the four mandated rookie FP1 runs for the season on a non-sprint weekend.
With temperatures soaring above the agreed threshold of 31 degrees and expected to do so for every on-track session, the FIA declared a heat hazard for this weekend’s running, forcing drivers to either wear cooling vests or carry additional ballast.
F1 Italian GP – FP1 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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