Italian Grand Prix Practice 1 Round-up

Free Practice 1 started with a historic moment for the ages as the most decorative and most successful driver ever, Lewis Hamilton rolled out of the Ferrari garage in front of the Tifosi running a special livery to celebrate Niki Laudas 1st F1 championship win 50 years ago.


Another bit of news was 2 young drivers taking part in this opening session. Alex Dunne took Oscar Piastri's spot at McLaren for thr morning and Paul Aron took Franco Colapinto's Alpine for a drive.

Early on, Williams looked quick with the pair P3 and P4 20 minutes in. Verstappen complaining about his tyres sliding whilst Lawson dropped a wheel into the gravel too. Max then drove through his queries and went P1, 1.20.7 to his name on mediums. At the same time, Gasly was blocked by a Williams out of Lesmo 2 and this would not be the first time today a Williams blocked a driver.

Aron put a wheel on the grass on the entry of turn 5 and was sent spinning around onto the run off and managed to recover. Gabriel Bortoleto was about to pit for Sauber and suddenly a Williams mechanic dropped a wheelgun cover just as he was turning into the pitbox and merely avoids it. Alex Dunne was given the luxury of a soft tyre run with a 1.21.6 in P15. Verstappen improved his current P1 time on the softs by a small margin but still complains about "sliding" on the radio.


Home Hero Kimi Antonelli dropped a wheel on the exit of Lesmo 1 and then did again through Ascari. Moments later, Isack Hadjar hoping to carry some confidence into Monza, went way too hot into Ascari and asks the team to "check the floor" as he went straight on through the gravel trap, spraying stones all over the racing line which resulted in a red flag for a quick track sweep. Norris also had a snap over oversteer and dipped a wheel briefly on the exit of Lesmo 2.


As the red flag fell from Hadjar, Charles Leclerc was investigated for a red flag infringement as he overtook a Sauber as the red light came on but this was deemed no further action as he had no time to slow down and avoid the action on the entry of turn 5.

Again a Williams impeded Gasly but this time was just crawling around the last corner which completely blocked the racing line and ruined his lap. George Russell was complaining about "a lot of helmet lifting".

Norris was struggling on the soft tyres and could not put a lap together. P11 for him in the moment. Someone who did find a lap was Leclerc in the Ferrari and went 4 tenths up on Max's P1 at the time, setting a 1.20.28. Alonso also went off at Ascari at the same time.

The best time in the session went the way of Hamilton with a 1.20.1. A solid 1.7 tenths up on Charles best time in P2, completing a 1-2 for the Maranello team. Antonelli also had a clean session, P5 for the Italian.

George Russell's W16 suffered a hydraulic issue at the dying seconds and was forced to pull over to the left and stop the car on the run up to turn 5 resulting in a Virtual Safety Car to end the session with the Briton reporting a "loss of power".


This was the full result of the Italian Grand Prix free practice 1:


  


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