MONZA: Free Practice 1 Report

Leclerc tops the first session in Monza

Leclerc and Hamilton topped the session in 1-2, which is a welcome sight to the Tifosi. Russell, Lawson and Antonelli rounded out the top 5.

Four rookies stood in as part of F1 teams mandatory rookie requirements. Ayumu Iwasa sat in for Max Verstappen at Red Bull, Colton Herta replaced Sergio Perez at Cadillac, Luke Browning covered for Alex Albon at Williams and Paul Aron stood in for Pierre Gasly at Alpine.

Colton Herta suffered a massive crash in F2 practice earlier today, completely destroying his Hitech car. His day did not improve in FP1 as he had to stop on track in his Cadillac due to a hydraulic issue, which also brought out a red flag 20 minutes into the session.

Disappointment for Herta as he has to stop on track

Liam Lawson is still in the other seat at Red Bull with Yuki Tsunoda at Racing Bulls as Isack Hadjar has still been deemed unfit to race following his wrist injury. It is highly likely he will miss Madrid next week as well, Baku being his target race weekend to return.

McLaren have introduced their own macarena style wing this weekend, although they have called it a ‘H-wing’. Red Bull have also brought back their design meaning the only top team on the grid without a variation of the flipping wing is Mercedes, who also have no plans to develop one this season.

One point of interest is the medium compound was working very well for Ferrari. Charles Leclerc went fastest on the compound while both Antonelli and Russell were setting fast laps on the softs.

It has been confirmed that both Kimi Antonelli and Alex Albon will start from the back of the grid after changing their Internal Combustion Engine’s as well as other electrical components.

From the session we saw that the slipstream is very strong around Monza this year so that is something to keep an eye out for in qualifying on Saturday. Mercedes have already hinted they may get Antonelli to give Russell a tow as he is starting from the back of the grid anyway. During the race a slipstream is also beneficial as drivers are able to use less battery power making management a lot simpler.

One thing to note is Alonso missed out on a lot of running time due to his Aston Martin having a fault with the active aero on the front wing. He spent a lot of time in the pits as engineers had to work to sort out the problem but he did get some laps in at the end. He only finished the session in 21^st though.

Finally during the session the Court of Appeal released their verdict on McLaren and Red Bull’s appeals against the result of the Monaco Grand Prix. Pierre Gasly, who claimed third after Alpine appealed his penalties, had his two 5 second penalties reinstated which drops him back down to 7^th. This means Isack Hadjar reclaims third and Oscar Piastri reclaims fourth, with Lawson and Lindblad in fifth and sixth.