The smooth FP1 session in Italian GP saw Max Verstappen lead the way from Carlos Sainz, with Sergio Perez in third.

It was indeed a smooth FP1 session in F1 Italian GP at Monza with the weather remaining dry as predicted. The last of the European races saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen continue his top run with a 1m22.657s lap on the hard compound.

He headed Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz where his teammate Charles Leclerc was fourth behind the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez. They all showed good pace with Mercedes’ George Russell slotting in fifth from Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was seventh from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who seemingly did not move away from AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda’s way as per his radio. The Japanese driver was ninth from Williams’ Alexander Albon in the Top 10.

The Thai racer had a moment at Ascari where he ran through the gravel, with teammate Logan Sargeant not far behind in 12th behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson had a good lap too to be 13th from Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

It wasn’t that smooth at Alfa Romeo after they faced issues initially with the clutch and anti-stall on both the cars. Valtteri Bottas was 15th after late improvements despite complains of balance issues, still seemingly related to the clutch.

Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg was 16th from Alpine’s Esteban Ocon with Aston Martin’s Felipe Drugovich in 18th who got his first FP1 chance with the F1 team in place of Lance Stroll. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was 19th from Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.

Replays towards the end showed Ocon having a gravel moment at Ascari like Albon, while Hulkenberg and Bottas ran through Turn 1 too. The tyre watch had the Top 4 on the hard tyre along with Hamilton, with Alonso, Hulkenberg, Drugovich and Magnussen on the medium compound while the rest all did so on the soft tyre.

The PU elements list saw new ICE for Leclerc, Sainz, Lawson, Tsunoda, Russell and Bottas which is their fourth of the F1 2023 season. The same set of drivers have taken up a new MGU-K too along with TC and MGU-H. The latter two parts have been taken up by Ocon too.

Here’s the PU list: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Italian%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20New%20PU%20elements%20for%20this%20Competition.pdf

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