Round 16 of 24 takes place in Monza, Italy. Franco Colapinto will be driving for Williams for the remainder of the season, replacing Logan Sargeant, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli gets behind the wheel of the Mercedes for FP1. There is a great deal of excitement surrounding the Italian teenager, who is tipped to join Mercedes on a permanent basis from 2025.
The drivers head out at 13:30 local time to explore a resurfaced track and a changed layout. It’s a hot and sunny start to the race weekend, with temperatures in the 30s.
Max Verstappen is among the first to go off at the altered first chicane, now featuring a gravel strip.
Aerodynamic probes are run on various cars, including Piastri’s McLaren, the Alpines and Astons.
Early into the session, Antonelli goes P1 on home soil as he sets his time on softs. On the same tyre, Hamilton soon shoots to the top of the pile with a 1m23.350s, just 0.044s ahead of Norris on mediums.
The red flag comes out 10 minutes into the session as Antonelli suffers a dramatic crash at Turn 11. Team boss Toto Wolff is quick to assure Antonelli that it’s “all good” before the driver safely gets out of the car. Antonelli makes his way to the medical centre while the crashed Mercedes is hauled away.
Nineteen drivers head out as the green light appears. Once the session resumes, Verstappen goes fastest with a 1.23.088 on the soft tyre. Albon briefly takes the P1 spot on the mediums; Valtteri Bottas on softs also appears in the top 5 at this stage.
A replay reveals Hamilton running wide onto the gravel, but with no real repercussions. Shortly after, Leclerc reports he nearly “lost it” in Turn 6, calling the SF-24 “tricky to drive.”
Colapinto dials himself in, steadily plugging away. He goes ninth fastest on a set of softs.
Sainz is the latest driver to have a scare in the search for the limit, but manages to save himself.
With 17 minutes left to go in the session, Bottas continues to top the timesheets as Leclerc goes second fastest overall, and Hamilton in third. Leclerc’s race engineer confirms the deceleration is “poor” in his Ferrari.
With a little over 11 minutes on the clock, Leclerc’s flying lap propels him to the top of the timesheets with a 1:21.904. Ferrari is running upgrades this weekend as they hope for a strong performance in front of the home crowd at the Temple of Speed. Norris is now in P2, just 0.013 off Leclerc’s time, with Sainz in third.
Antonelli is given the all-clear from the medical team and returns to the Mercedes garage.
With 6 minutes on the clock, Verstappen steals the top spot from Leclerc, setting a purple middle sector as he propels himself from 18th to 1st with a 1:21.676 on softs.
Replays show Hamilton suffering a lockup as Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also has a moment, spraying gravel as he goes.
The yellow flag is briefly waved as Colapinto has a snap of oversteer, sailing into the gravel but stopping before he can make contact with the barrier. Ocon also has a spin in the middle of the track after hitting a kerb.
Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris, Sainz, Bottas, Piastri, Hamilton, Albon, Perez, Alonso are the top ten as the flag falls, concluding the first practice session of the weekend.
