Bottas leads Mercedes 1-2 in opening Italian GP practice
As is always the case during the Friday morning F1 track cleaning practice session, Lewis Hamilton lets his teammate Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time before destroying him in qualifying and in the race.
Bottas set a time of 1m20.703s with the soft tire compound in his #77 Mercedes to lead teammate Hamilton by 0.245s in Practice 1 at Monza for the Italian GP.
Alex Albon was 3rd quick for Red Bull Honda a huge 0.797s slower and, hence, out to lunch.
Daniil Kvyat, driving for his job, was 4th quick for AlphaTauri while Max Verstappen, who crashed earlier, round out the top-5 for Red Bull Honda.
Luckily for Ferrari there were no fans in attendance as Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel (who bounced over the curbs and through the gravel in Turn 6 after carrying too much speed on entry) were only 11th and 21st respectively.
Practice 1 Results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
| 1 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:20.703 | +0.000s | 28 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:20.948 | +0.245s | 27 |
| 3 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:21.500 | +0.797s | 30 |
| 4 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri Honda | 1:21.555 | +0.852s | 31 |
| 5 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:21.641 | +0.938s | 22 |
| 6 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri Honda | 1:21.667 | +0.964s | 27 |
| 7 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point Mercedes | 1:21.747 | +1.044s | 25 |
| 8 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Renault | 1:21.747 | +1.044s | 29 |
| 9 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1:21.789 | +1.086s | 22 |
| 10 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | McLaren Renault | 1:21.821 | +1.118s | 27 |
| 11 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:21.904 | +1.201s | 25 |
| 12 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1:21.984 | +1.281s | 28 |
| 13 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point Mercedes | 1:22.131 | +1.428s | 21 |
| 14 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | 1:22.409 | +1.706s | 20 |
| 15 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 1:22.422 | +1.719s | 19 |
| 16 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 1:22.552 | +1.849s | 24 |
| 17 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 1:22.619 | +1.916s | 27 |
| 18 | 40 | Roy Nissany | Williams Mercedes | 1:22.826 | +2.123s | 25 |
| 19 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:22.988 | +2.285s | 24 |
| 20 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams Mercedes | 1:23.120 | +2.417s | 22 |