Italian Grand Prix 2023 – Free Practice 1: Verstappen leads, Ferrari keeping up

Today marks the start of the 14th round of the Formula 1 season at Monza, and boss Max Verstappen continues to dominate. The Dutch driver finished the first free practice session of the weekend with the fastest time, just ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari (+0.046) and his teammate Sergio Perez (+0.177).

Little action at the beginning of the afternoon in Monza. As in the Hungarian GP, the alternative format is back for qualifying. Drivers have only 11 sets of tires at their disposal instead of 13, and in qualifying, tomorrow, they will use the Hard tires in Q1, Medium in Q2, and the Soft tires in Q3.

Verstappen in his place, Ferrari as well

His recently renewed contract, Lewis Hamilton, wearing hard tires, quickly set the best time in 1.24.429 before Oscar Piastri stole it from him with softs (1.24.241).

The Ferraris performed well in front of their home crowd, also on hard tires throughout the session, just like Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Sainz and Leclerc were the closest to the two Red Bulls and held their positions on a circuit that should suit them better than Zandvoort.

Verstappen, on his side, took back the reference time from Piastri and managed to lower it to 1.22.657 at best. Behind the top 4, Russell performed well on hard tires, Alonso had chosen the medium tires, just like his teammate for this session, Felipe Drugovich, and the two Haas drivers. The Spaniard is in 6th place, Norris is 7th ahead of Hamilton, Tsunoda, and finally Alex Albon, who completes the top 10.

Albon in the gravel trap, the Alfa Romeos stuck

Note that the Thai driver had a little scare when he lost the rear of his car at the Ascari chicane. He then took a little trip through the gravel trap at turn 10 but returned to the track. At the same turn 10, Esteban Ocon also went off track. By the way, the French driver only achieved the 17th best time (+1.433) and Pierre Gasly the 14th (+1.274).

Another minor incident to note, the troubles of Alfa Romeo. In his first outing, Guanyu Zhou had to be brought back to the pit by his team due to a stalling issue. Unfortunately, his teammate Valtteri Bottas experienced the same problem and was only able to get back on track midway through the session.