Italy – Free Practice 1: Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes Far Ahead of Ferrari

It is under a cloudy and threatening sky that this last European weekend of the season begins. The tarmac of the Monza Autodrome was wet several times during the session. But in reality, it mainly appeared during the last quarter hour: a light rain but enough to somewhat disrupt the end of the drivers’ program.

Consequently, the majority of the drivers quickly took to the track and swiftly set a benchmark time, fearing that the rain might make an appearance. Moreover, Haas played it safe by having Kevin Magnussen take laps instead of Antonio Giovinazzi for this first session, to take advantage of the currently favorable conditions at the start of the weekend.

Several teams are testing the new Halo that will be introduced from the 2018 season. Fernando Alonso in his McLaren, Pascal Wehrlein with Sauber, and Carlos Sainz driving his Toro Rosso are among the guinea pigs of the day.

Fernando fires up and leaves the garage on the yellow-banded Soft tyre. #ItalianGP 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/R9LWCGjhHK

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) 1 septembre 2017

Quickly, the Mercedes drivers settle at the top of the timesheets with a best time for Valtteri Bottas at 1:22.086 on the soft compound, about seven tenths ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Pérez, and Max Verstappen complete the Top 5 at this start of the session. More persistent, the two Silver Arrows accumulate kilometers on track while the Ferraris hold back a bit.

Several drivers made mistakes in the first chicane, without consequences, just like Romain Grosjean’s few errors at the wheel of a Haas, very unstable under braking.

As usual in Monza, the top speeds are dizzying, and Esteban Ocon’s Force India is already approaching 350 km/h with its Mercedes power unit.

At mid-session, the super-soft tires are out. Hamilton directly improves his time to 1:21.868, followed by Bottas four-tenths behind and the two Ferraris of Vettel and Räikkönen over a second behind.

Behind this beautiful world, the two Red Bulls of Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo are ahead of the two Force Indias of Pérez and Ocon. However, the drivers of the Austrian team might face some grid penalties after changing several elements of their power unit… just like Fernando Alonso, who will incur a penalty of around thirty grid places due to a problem with his turbo. Both teams are therefore focusing on the next event in Singapore, even if it means sacrificing the Italian race.

To compensate for the straight-line deficit, the representatives from Woking are practicing slipstreaming, as they did at Spa-Francorchamps.

The rain appears fifteen minutes before the end of the session, causing a few off-track excursions here and there on a now slippery tarmac.

SAI goes for a spin at Turn 11 🌧️

No harm done as he gets going again#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 #FP1 pic.twitter.com/oD3DypdVER

— Formula 1 (@F1) 1 September 2017

Unsurprisingly, the drivers remain comfortably in their garages and there is little chance of seeing the times improve by the end of this first free practice session. The two Ferrari drivers, in front of their home crowd, are satisfied with a few practice starts at the exit of the pit lane.

With 3 minutes remaining, the rain stops and many drivers return to the track but without significant improvements. The two Mercedes choose to stay in the garage to preserve the engine and its components. The session ends with the best time by Lewis Hamilton. An already impressive lap time compared to FP1 2016, faster by seven-tenths!

The rest is expected to be close to, or even above, the track record once again. Just two more seconds to make up to match the legendary time of 1:19.525 set by Juan Pablo Montoya in his Williams in 2004…

The complete standings of FP1:

INITIAL CLASSIFICATION (END OF FP1): A successful morning for @MercedesAMGF1 💪#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 #FP1 pic.twitter.com/y5PuFl0VlP

— Formula 1 (@F1) 1 septembre 2017