Ferrari at the front on home ground
Fifty degrees on the track surface, and Charles Leclerc still found grip nobody else could. The Monegasque topped first practice for the Italian Grand Prix this morning with a 1:23.008, leaving Lewis Hamilton 0.173 seconds adrift in second. Ferrari had both cars at the head of the timing screen inside an hour of running at Monza.
The tyre choice mattered more than the margin. Nine drivers took the softest C5 compound out of the garage during the session. Leclerc never bothered. He ran 26 laps, more than anyone else on the grid, and set his benchmark on a used set of mediums while rivals chased headline times on rubber that should have been quicker.
George Russell had briefly been fastest with a 1:23.312 on softs. Leclerc answered almost immediately, and Russell settled for third, 0.304 back. Ferrari’s low-drag package looks suited to a circuit built out of long straights and violent braking zones.
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Herta’s Cadillac brings out the red flag
The session stopped before halfway. Colton Herta pulled his Cadillac off the road with a suspected hydraulic problem. Yellow flags became a Virtual Safety Car, and then a red flag once marshals had to recover the car by hand.
Liam Lawson used the restart well. Fourth, 0.425s off Leclerc, in a Red Bull he keeps at Monza with Isack Hadjar out of the weekend. Max Verstappen watched the hour from the garage while Ayumu Iwasa completed one of the team’s mandatory rookie outings.
Kimi Antonelli was fifth for Mercedes on a separate programme, which counts for little at a home race he starts from the back after taking engine penalties. Lando Norris took sixth for McLaren, part of his session spent evaluating a rear-wing concept. Arvid Lindblad put a Racing Bull seventh, ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto, Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron.
An hour that settles nothing
Dust and heat caught several drivers late on. Fernando Alonso dipped a wheel into the gravel and kept the car pointing forward. Oliver Bearman ran wide across the same loose surface. Leclerc had an excursion of his own earlier and escaped without damage.
Fuel loads and programmes varied enough that the competitive order stays hidden until the second session at 16:00 local, with qualifying on Saturday afternoon. What Ferrari banked was an hour of the tifosi watching red at the top of the sheet, on a weekend where the championship leader will be starting from somewhere near the back.
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