Practice 1 Report - Verstappen tops first session

Max Verstappen
© Red Bull

Max Verstappen dampened the tifosi’s otimism as he beat home favorite Charles Leclerc with a late effort, to lead the time sheets at the end of FP1 for the Italian Grand Prix.

The Dutch driver had a difficult start of the session, as on three occasions he was unable to stop his car going into the re-profiled first chicane and took to the run off area. A lengthy stop in the pits made the car better under braking and making the most out of the big track evolution we saw in this session, the World Champion jumped to P1, as he was the last of the front runners to run on low fuel and soft tyres. Nevertheless, it’s clear the RB20 is still a very difficult car to drive, Verstappen having to make a few corrections in the faster corners while Sérgio Pérez, always unhappy when his car is nervous, was down in P9, more than 0.6s away from his team mate.

The session was stopped for 13 minutes, when Mercedes’ hoshot Andrea Kimi Antonelli, having his first Grand Prix outing as he drove George Russell’s car, crashed heavily in the Parabolica at the end of what was only his second flying lap with the W15. Having set the fastest time of all in his first lap, the young Italian was lowering his times by a considerable margin when he lost the rear of the Mercedes soon after turning in, doing a complete spin before hitting the tec-pro barriers hard on the outside of the track.

Reassured by Team Principal Toto Wolff that, “it’s all good Kimi, all good”, the youth Italian returned quickly to the pits, where the mechanics are now assessing the damage and putting new parts in, for Russell to be able to take part in FP2 from the start of the session. The biggest concern was that the new Power Unit that was mounted on the car may have been damaged, as replacing with a new one would make the British driver incurr a grid penalty for exceeding his yearly allowance of Power Units.

Hamilton, in the other Mercedes, was relatively quick on the Medium compound tyres but didn’t make a lot of progress with the Softs, dropping to P7. The veteran, however, was running with the old spec floor, for a comparison with the new one that was in Antonelli’s car and will likely switch to the new one for the rest of the weekend.

Ferrari had a tough start of the weekend too, particularly on Leclerc’s side, but both drivers were struggling with heavy braking. That was common to a lot of drivers and cars, as the new tarmac seemed to offer a lot of cornering grip but not so much in terms of deceleration. Having learned how to deal with the situation, Leclerc jumped to the top of the table and stayed there until Verstappen toppled him with a late effort, while Sainz, who’d been quicker than his team mate from the start of the session, survived a big moment in the Parabolica, at th end of what was going to be his fastest lap, but managed to keep his car away from the gravel, ending the session in fourth place.

Lando Norris split the two Ferraris, the McLaren driver doing just one quick lap on low fuel and new tyres, as his and Piastri’s focus was on getting the set-up right for race conditions. The Australian, who struggled with the new braking point into Turn 1, was down in 6th place at the end of the session. The McLaren, however, seemed far better balanced than the other top cars, so there is certainly more to come from Norris and Piastri later in the day.

Valtteri Bottas was the surprise guest in the top 5, the Finnish driver showing a lot of speed both with the Medium and the Soft tyres. on the day new CTO and COO of Sauber, Mattia Binotto, made his first appearance with the team, Bottas presented his case for a contract renewal in no uncertain terms, but its likely both he and Zhou, who was P15, lapping 0.7s slower than the veteran, ran with a bit less fuel on board than their rivals. Still, on a track where it’s now possible to run with very low ride height, the Swiss team is hoping to be close to the front of the midfield and finally score its first points of the season.

Alex Albon (8th) and Fernando Alonso (10th)completed the top ten, while Ricciardo narrowly beat Tsunoda for P12, the gap between the two VCARB drivers being just 0.1s.

New Williams driver Franco Colappinto finished the session in 17th place, lapping 0.66s slower than Albon but crucially surviving an off at the Parabólica on what was his last lap of the session, as he went deep into the gravel trap but narrowly avoided hitting the barrier.