ITALIAN GP – Charles Leclerc leads a Ferrari one-two in first practice
Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari one-two in first practice for the Italian Grand Prix. The Monacan set a 23.410 on the soft tyres which put him almost eight hundredths of a second faster than Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz. The team go into their home race after a series of strategy errors.
The session began in muted tones with teams observing a minute silence following the death of Queen Elizabeth II with all the teams paying tribute with flags at half-mast and black armbands, as well as teams honouring her contribution to public life set to continue throughout the weekend.
Mercedes George Russell was third almost three tenths behind Sainz after setting his fastest time on the soft tyres midway through the session to go ahead of Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton followed his teammate going into fourth, nearly a tenth faster than Verstappen.
It was Leclerc who topped the timesheets to start the weekend, leading a Ferrari one-two ahead of Carlos Sainz as the under-pressure team showed encouraging pace in front of their home crowd. Leclerc being over four-tenths faster than his championship rival.
However, the Dutchman was held up on his fastest lap on the soft tyre through Parabolica by Lando Norris, as he was looking to go fastest. Both Hamilton and Verstappen are amongst drivers who face grid penalties for various changes to engine or gearbox parts.
Verstappen, on the back of four straight F1 wins to stretch a huge title lead, was only fifth, although had his fastest lap on the soft tyres disrupted by a McLaren. His soft run was interrupted by traffic from a McLaren.
Perez has a new engine as well as a penalty for exceeding gearbox components, Sainz a new MGU-K and battery – although is likely to take further components throughout the weekend.
Bottas and Tsunoda have entire new power units, in addition to the Japanese’s ten-place penalty for exceeding the permitted number of driver reprimands for a season, after picking up his fifth at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Esteban Ocon put his Alpine fifth after going just under four hundredths faster than his teammate Fernando Alonso. The French manufacturer looking to cerement their position in fourth ahead of McLaren in the constructors, with Ocon using the soft tyre to close within eight tenths.
Yuki Tsunoda put his Alpha Tauri eighth on soft tyres and going over a tenth faster than Valtteri Bottas, while last years race winning Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top ten. Alexander Albon put his Williams eleventh another strong start for the British-Thai driver.
Guanyu Zhou put his Alfa Romeo twelfth going seven hundredths faster than Pierre Gasly.
Sergio Perez could only go fourteenth, the Red Bull driver rear wing was also spotted oscillating wildly as he ran down the main straight during the early laps, with Red Bull working on the issue, which also appeared in the early rounds of the season, throughout the rest of the session.
However, that could be caused by the unique set up required for Monza, as several teams experimented with low downforce set-up for the high-speed circuit.
Lando Norris was sixteenth going a tenth and a half ahead if the two Haas’s with Kevin Magnussen ahead of the teams reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi by just over four tenth. Nyck De Vires was nineteenth going just over two hundredths ahead of Nicolas Latifi.