Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Hamilton Tops the Leaderboard

It was a very important free practice session for the teams, as the format for this weekend starts on Saturday instead of Friday, giving the teams less track time. This means less preparation on a track that is relatively unknown to the Formula 1 world, which last visited Imola in 2006.

It was Daniil Kvyat, after just over 10 minutes, who was the first to take a trip into the gravel at Tamburello. He was followed by Carlos Sainz 20 minutes later, but at the last corner, Rivazza this time. With only 1.5 hours of practice before qualifying, it was crucial to discover the limits of the track during free practice rather than in the qualifying session.

As in Mugello, the track limits caught out a few riders. Both of these Italian circuits are very fast and also quite narrow, which leaves very little room for error for the riders who must be on the edge to perform well without going off into the gravel or invalidating their lap time.

After 1 hour and 10 minutes of the session, we could already analyze the strengths present. Unsurprisingly, Mercedes and Red Bull are far ahead of the rest in the middle of the pack. Renault seemed to be the 3rd strongest team, with Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon in 4th and 5th positions. The disappointment of the weekend could well be McLaren, which had both of its drivers behind those of Racing Point, a direct competitor of the English team for 3rd place in the championship.

With 5 minutes remaining, Pierre Gasly, who is having a special weekend in tribute to Ayrton Senna, recorded the 4th best time of the session. He was the only driver alongside Charles Leclerc from the midfield to be within the same second as the three leaders of the session. With Kvyat in 8th position, 3 tenths behind his garage neighbor, AlphaTauri seemed to finally be faster than the Racing Point.

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