Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc led McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris in a rain-affected F1 Italian GP FP1 session.
It was wet FP1 session to start the F1 Italian GP weekend at Monza with three red flags disrupting the runs. Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen was the first to cause when he lost the rear at Parabolica.
It was not even a lap in after re-start that Racing Point’s Sergio Perez went off at Ascari, where he suffered damage to front and rear end. It was the same corner where McLaren’s Carlos Sainz lost control.
A brief red flag was then waved for a spin for Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly at Turn 1 as the Frenchman got stuck on the sausage kerb and had to be pushed back by the marshals, before he got going.
There were multiple offs in slippery conditions, with many going long at Turn 1. By the end of the session, with dry line appearing, the drivers started to complete few laps on the dry compounds.
The dry runs helped Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (1m27.905s) to top the session from McLaren’s Sainz (1m28.211s) and Lando Norris (1m28.450s), with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (1m28.730s) in fourth.
Leclerc ran the medium compound as opposed to the softs for the rest apart from Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel (1m30.507s), who was eighth. Ahead of him were the two Red Bull Racing drivers and a Toro Rosso.
Alexander Albon (1m29.025s) was fifth leading Daniil Kvyat (1m29.960s) and Max Verstappen (1m30.100s), with the Dutchman having to push through some brake issues.
The Top 10 was rounded out by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (1m30.596s) and Toro Rosso’s Gasly (1m30.695s), with Alfa Romeo’s Antoinio Giovinazzi (1m32.848s) in 11th from Racing Point’s Lance Stroll (1m33.976s).
It was the Renault and Haas drivers in formation with Daniel Ricciardo (1m34.528s) ahead of Kevin Magnussen (1m34.715s), Nico Hulkenberg (1m35.133s) and Romain Grosjean (1m35.980s) in 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th.
The Williams drivers were 17th and 18th with Robert Kubica (1m37.816s) ahead of George Russell (1m38.421s) as Perez and Raikkonen had no time set even though the Finn had his car fixed up.