The Friday in F1 Italian GP was slippery for a lot of drivers having gravel moment, as McLaren maintained its top position but with a close field behind.
It is not often that McLaren don’t end up on top and Friday in F1 Italian GP at Monza started perfectly for Ferrari when they ended up 1-2, with Lewis Hamilton leading teammate Charles Leclerc. The Brit felt the strongest in the first session, but dipped a bit in the second by his own admission.
The Monegasque was close to P1 in FP2, but wants to see if they can keep up the pace and consistency when it matters in qualifying and the race. McLaren’s Lando Norris was fastest in FP2 but was wary of the close competition around him. He knows they have the pace, but wants to be certain.
Teammate Oscar Piastri picked up his pace well after missing FP1. He had Alex Dunne in the car for the first session, who kept the car straight. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, surprisingly, felt better on first day in Monza than he has been off-late or even last year at the same venue.
He didn’t struggle as much in the car as he did last year, with the hope to carry the momentum. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda was surprised by his fast lap in FP2, but admits he has work to do on race pace, which is still not where he wants, having improved on qualifying side.
Mercedes’ George Russell didn’t feel the best in the close pack which put him only 10th in FP2. Normally, at the pace he is, he is near to Top 5 but the competition is too tight. Andrea Kimi Antonelli did not end well in FP2 after dropping the car in the gravel, but he notes it hasn’t hurt his confidence.
Norris: “Normally by this point we have like a one-second gap on everyone! But at the moment it looks just a bit close for my liking at the minute. Not bad, I feel like there’s some small things to improve for us to still be P1. I thought it was good that we improved some stuff from FP1 to FP2. It’s just a bit close, so I just need to try and make the gap a bit bigger so a little bit more comfortable. Still trickier than what I would like. This is the complete opposite downforce level to Zandvoort, [in] Zandvoort where we were just easily quickest and it felt pretty amazing. Here’s quite the opposite, so [it’s] not a surprise. It’s probably what we were expecting, that kind of thing, but I definitely think we don’t perform quite to the same level in these kind of low downforce conditions as we do when we’re at a high downforce. The competitors catch up, it looks a bit closer and it makes our life a bit trickier, but I think we’re still in a reasonable place. Some small things to improve, and we’ll be a bit better.”
Verstappen: “Last year for us this was a very difficult weekend and I think we seem a lot more competitive. I’ve been happy with the car as well. The sessions have been quite tricky also with people going off and putting a lot of gravel on the track, but overall it’s been quite a decent Friday I think for us.”
Hamilton: “FP1 was really, really strong and FP2 was definitely much more of a struggle but it’s better to have that in FP2 and learn from that rather than FP3. Lots of positives to take from today and we’ll do some work overnight and I hope that tomorrow we can be better. I think the McLarens are obviously still very fast and I think it’s very close with everyone in the top five, top 10, so [it] will be a challenge. It’s not easy to overtake and I’ve obviously got that penalty which is unfortunate.”
Antonelli: “I mean, I just pushed a bit too hard for the grip in the moment. It was a shame. The day was looking good; I had a good FP1 and then the start of FP2 was looking strong. My confidence is still high, just obviously tomorrow I will have to do a bit of a different programme [in FP3]. We’ll try to be ready for anything. I felt pretty confident [before that]. We were moving in the right direction with the set-up. Obviously it’s a shame to miss laps, but on my side I’ll try to get ready and to deliver the best job tomorrow. I think Qualifying is going to be very tight, as always. It looks pretty close out there – in four-tenths there were 10 cars [at the end of FP2]. It’s going to be very tight. But as I said, the pace felt pretty good today. We’ll just try to deliver the best job as possible and try to start as far forward as possible tomorrow.”
As expected, the Williams F1 pair were right up the alley on Friday. Both Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz showed good pace, with the Spaniard ending up third in both the sessions. They are happy with the showing, but hope to be consistent through the weekend and not fall through.
Outside Williams, the other midfield F1 teams didn’t get enough legs with Aston Martin and Visa Cash App RB showing some pace. Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll tried a lot of things with the car and strategy, with the hope to find the best package going into Saturday and Sunday.
Both Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson expected tough run in Monza especially against Williams F1 duo. But they have some optimism to be close to them in the Top 10. Haas pair of Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon felt better in FP2 than FP1, as the improvements worked in their favour.
But they are still looking for the extra length to get in the Top 10. It was so-so outing for Sauber and Alpine, where they felt okay with their programme but were down on pace. Franco Colapinto missed FP1 for Paul Aron’s rookie run, but didn’t feel as great in FP2 upon returning.
Albon: “It’s more just can we make it repetitive and can we get the same car that we got today for tomorrow. There’s a lot of work to be done and I think we have sweet spots and we’ve seen it time and time again this year, our out-laps and getting the tyres in the right window is going to be tricky so we just need to make sure we can actually execute what we want to do. Good points for sure [is the goal]. I think we’ve always come here, we’ve always focused on the top of the midfield and I think we can, we’ve got reasonable car pace today so let’s see if it carries on.”
Alonso: “It was an okay Friday for us with a lot of grip on this asphalt and these temperatures. We did a mixture of high fuel and low fuel running today and I didn’t feel that competitive, so we need to try to find more pace overnight.”
Bearman: “It was a good day overall, and we improved a lot from FP1 to FP2. In FP1 I personally struggled a lot with the car, especially in the low-speed corners, which is obviously quite important on a track like this. In FP2 we made a big step in car feeling and confidence levels, so that was positive, and we’ll try to make a few more steps before the race. I was struggling a little bit in Parabolica with car balance, the wind wasn’t in our favor, so that was the biggest time loss. It looks like we’re lacking on the straights and I’m not sure what we can do about that, but we’ll work overnight to see how we can improve.”
Hadjar: “We knew before coming to Monza that the midfield here would have been very tight. My feeling was right, it’s going to be hard for us to catch up to Williams but not impossible. We’re lacking speed at the moment, but I think that we can have a good shot at fighting to reach another Q3. We know it’s difficult, but obviously that’s our hope, so that then we can try to get some points on Sunday.”
Gasly: “It is always good to be driving in Monza and it is obviously a place with special memories and meaning for me, especially since I live nearby in Milan and stay at home for the race weekend! Driving down the main straight here is a special feeling and the high top speed is always amazing to experience. It was a busy day of Practice, which ran to plan. We completed a lot of laps, well over 300km in total across the day, and gathered a lot of useful data on both low and high fuel. We knew going into the weekend it would be challenging for us. We had minor damage after running wide at Ascari in Free Practice 2 but nothing too bad. We will, of course, aim to maximise what we have and see what we can do tomorrow. I’ll give it my all to try and find some lap time and see where that leaves us in Qualifying.”
Hulkenberg: “It was a straightforward Friday for us, with no issues. We focused on running through our programme, gathering data on the car, the package, and the tyres. We made some good progress from FP1 to FP2 today, and the aim now is to keep building on that over the weekend.”
Dunne: “It’s been a good day! I learned a lot, and I was pleased that I knew what I was comfortable with in the car and what I needed to improve on in the session, making sure I didn’t push the limits, while also gathering useful information for the team. Thank you to the team for the opportunity to get in the MCL39 again, I am extremely grateful.”
Aron: “It was great to be with the team driving in Free Practice 1 for the first time in Alpine colours. Any time driving a Formula 1 car is a great opportunity and it was a lot of fun to drive in Monza at such a fantastic track. It was a busy session with a lot happening and a lot to run through. We managed to stick to our programme, which is the main thing, and I was pleased to be very much on the pace straight away. It is a busy Friday for me as I am on the simulator at Enstone tonight to help out there so hopefully we can find some improvements going into tomorrow. Thanks to the team for the opportunity, another good experience and I look forward to the next Practice outing later in the season.”
Here’s how FP1 in F1 Italian GP was: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/fp1-hamilton-heads-ferrari-1-2-in-opening-practice-session-for-italian-grand.1XmpHLAS3x6fhw46JICwvP
Here’s how FP2 in F1 Italian GP was: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/fp2-norris-leads-leclerc-and-sainz-during-second-practice-at-monza.8iVHsujtQVzgF4GGiBNdF
F1 Italian GP details –
The track limits as per FIA Race Director remain white lines for this weekend’s F1 Italian GP at Monza. He has added an additional note about negotiating Turn 11 where if a driver fails to do it, the lap will be invalidated. They have also alerted that the dotted white lines at pit exit will be marked as track edge.
Further note on escape road:
- Escape Road at Turn 1 – Turn 2 Four rows of polystyrene blocks have been placed in the escape road at the first chicane. In order to ensure the cars are able to re-join the track safely any driver using the escape road must go around the end of each of these rows and re-join the track at the end of the escape road. Drivers may only use the grass if it is clearly unavoidable.
- Escape Road at Turn 4 – Turn 5 Any driver going straight and who misses Turn 4 and passes to the right of the gravel trap must stay to the right of the yellow line and the yellow bollard, he may re-join the track at the far end of the asphalt run-off area after the exit of Turn 5.
There only couple of changes made to Monza circuit from last year as per FIA Race Directors’ note, where they have added a ‘new gate in the pit wall in front of garage 32’ and there has been ‘asphalt repair by application of bitumen coating at Turn 1 and Turn 4’.
In terms of the DRS zones, the first’s detection is 95m before Turn 7 and activation is 170m after Turn 7. At the same time, the second’s detection is 20m after Turn 11 and activation is 12m after the finish line. Moving on to the FIA stewards panel, it will be led by Felix Holter.
He will have the support of Mathieu Remmerie, Derek Warwick and Valerio Brizzolari. From the last weekend at Zandvoort, the FIA noted of intensive checks on the pit stop side of the cars of Visa Cash App RB pair of Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson.
The F1 Italian GP weekend will see F2 racer Alex Dunne in place of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to fulfill the FP1 rookie requirements. At the same time, Paul Aron will replace Franco Colapinto at Alpine, with the Estonian getting a go in the A525 after his time with Sauber.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, was not too pleased with a penalty for this weekend’s F1 Italian GP, for what happened pre-race in Zandvoort. He didn’t slow down enough in the final corner during the recon lap for the waved double yellow flag. The stewards noted that he slowed but it was not significant enough, which is why he was handed 5-place penalty for the grand prix in Monza.
“Of course, I don’t know how the other drivers felt about the decisions from the last race, but when I landed back home and saw I got this penalty, I was really shocked,” said Hamilton. “But it is what it is. It’s obviously not black and white. If you look at the report, I did lift, but to their liking, not enough. To get the penalty and penalty points is pretty hardcore. But I learn from it.
“There’s no point whinging about it. I’ll move forward. It’s going to be challenging this weekend. Qualifying is already so close between us all. Just getting into Q3 is tough, getting into the top five is very tough. And then on top of that, to be set back five places is not great when you’re going into your first Monza GP with Ferrari. But it gives me more to fight for, and I’m very motivated to make up those places regardless.”
