F1: Hamilton tops opening Italian GP practice

Slipstreaming is always key at Monza and Lewis Hamilton, on harder medium tires, did it best, beating Max Verstappen on the soft red Pirelli tires by 0.452s to top opening practice for the Italian GP at Monza Friday morning.

Hamilton’s time of 1m20.926s was impressive given he was on the medium tires, and bodes well for him the remainder of the weekend.

Valtteri Bottas was 3rd quick 0.525s behind Hamilton and ahead of Lance Stroll in 4th for Aston Martin, 0.75s back.

Both Mercedes and both McLarens were on medium Pirellis while most set their times on the soft reds. But have Mercedes made a blunder by only running the medium compound tires? With no practice at all on the hard or soft compound, are they short of data heading into the weekend?

Lando Norris had slotted into P2 but lost his flying lap to track limits – Parabolica proving the culprit.

Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel were 5th and 6th ahead of the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr, the Alpine of Fernando Alonso. Alonso was exactly 1.000s behind Hamilton.

Practice 1 Results