Ferrari one-two as Italian GP practice begins

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have kept the local fans happy with a Ferrari one-two in Free Practice 1 for the Italian Grand Prix.

Leclerc was 0.07s faster than his team-mate who was in turn 0.2s clear of George Russell in third.

It was a busy but incident-free session, with no interruptions or yellow flags – though Sainz and Nyck de Vries bounced through the gravel at Variante Ascari.

De Vries was on track soon after the session began with a large aero rake fitted to the Aston Martin he was borrowing from Sebastian Vettel.

Max Verstappen was also among the early flurry on track, setting a 1:25.230s.

Sergio Perez then went fastest with a 1:25.026s, both he and his Red Bull team-mate on hard compound tyres.

Pierre Gasly was called back into the garage for an undisclosed issue.

His Scuderia AlphaTauri was seen to be smoking from the rear of the car when he took to the escape road at the opening chicane moments earlier.

The Frenchman was quickly back out on track, with flo-vis paint on his rear wing.

Having recorded six laps in the opening minutes, Sainz was in the garage, his car on stands – he was back on track with 32 minutes remaining with a set of hard compound tyres fitted.

Charles Leclerc was also on track, going fastest with a 1:22.410s to beat Verstappen’s 1:22.853s, which had been the fastest to that point.

Leclerc’s lap came on a set of soft tyres as the qualifying simulation phase began.

Verstappen’s flying lap was compromised when he came across Lando Norris in the final sector, the McLaren drive unwilling to do any favours.

It saw the Red Bull driver drop more than 0.4s, which was the difference between him and Leclerc at the top of the standings.

Sainz improved to second with a 1:22.487s, just 0.077s slower than his team-mate.

Verstappen had slipped to fifth behind the two Mercedes, Russell third with a 1:22.689s and Lewis Hamilton fourth on a 1:22.831s.

Perez meanwhile sat 14th, the Mexican’s car suffering from an oscillating DRS flap early in the session.

That prompted work from the team in the garage, which kept him off track for almost 20 minutes.

When he did emerge in the final stages it was on a set of hard compound tyres and he did not improve on his earlier time.

A locked brake from de Vries under braking for the Ascari Chicane saw the Aston Martin bounce through the gravel, the rake having been removed from his car.

The Formula E world champion sat just 19th on the timesheets with a best of 1:24.731s, quicker only than Nicholas Latifi.

His best was also more than a second down on Lance Stroll in the other Aston Martin, the Canadian 15th after the qualifying simulations.

The other ring-in for the session, Antonio Giovinazzi, was 18th for Haas, little more than 0.3s down on Kevin Magnussen.

Leclerc ended the session fastest ahead of Sainz, with Russell third best ahead of his team-mate.

Then came Verstappen and the two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso respectively.

The top 10 was rounded out by Yuki Tsunoda, Valtteri Bottas, and Daniel Ricciardo.

Cars return to the track for Free Practice 2 at 17:00 CEST (11:00 ET/17:00 AEST).

Results: Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, Free Practice 1