Verstappen starts to dominate; Colapinto, good premiere although Antonelli had a scare and an accident

Max Verstappen He started strongly in Free Practice 1 of the Italian F1 GP. The Dutch pilot, currently leader of World Cup with a 70 point advantage about a Lando Norris favorite at Monza because he drives the best car, he was able to dominate the first practice sessions held Monza with 0″228 advantage to the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who is also expected to fight for everything on this track, and for 0.241 with respect to Norriswho was third in his excellent McLaren.

There’s still a lot of fabric to cut monzamany tests will be carried out and a lot of meat will be put into the engines when the car is empty of fuel, in addition to finding the appropriate set-up for the cars, so the times cannot yet be taken as representative.

But for now, take a look Verstappen start at the top after his many problems since then Miamiwhere he suffered a lot Friday, should be a positive point for Verstappen who wants to return the blow Norris dealt him by winning at home a few days ago to prevent Lando from growing any further and forcing him to in the title.

Carlos Sainz, with Ferrari, was 4th at 0″450 and ended the session by changing settingssomething that indicates he still needs to find the optimal car set-up.

Bottas 5th with Sauber, which indicates that the times still need to improve a lot, and Piastri is 6th up to half a second. For its part, another one that should be at the top, the Mercedes of Hamilton, driving in front of his future fans from 2025, is 7th at 0.5driving with the old floor of a Mercedes team that no one wants to start.

Alonso, 10th

Fernando Alonso, who before this GP warned that points are a difficult goal Because this track is a small matter on his Aston Martin, he had to carry out several tests on his car to collect relevant data for the future and to improve the understanding of the car, as he already announced on Thursday.

That should be his priority besides finding a car set-up for Monza. So far, Alonso has started 10th, a place he wants to aim for this weekend to pick up some points. Although we have to see the potential hidden in Aston Martin compared to its rivals.

Colapinto, good debut, from less to more

Franc Cola pinto He made a good debut as an official Williams driver. He did what he had to do: ride, improve little by little, add kilometers to understand the car and avoid accidents. He had a scare at the end of the session when he left the track at Parabolica, but managed to avoid the wall. This is the only ‘but’ in his debut (he already rode in FP1 at Silverstone and in the Abu Dhabi tests, but this time it was as an official driver for the last 9 races of the year).

Franco started more than 2 seconds off the best time but it was progressing as the laps pass, remains 1″2 behind the best and 7 tenths behind his teammate Alex Albon, who occupied the 17th final position in FP1. It’s still a long way off, but at the start it’s not bad at all, knowing he has the car to have a good weekend because of Williams’ huge potential in the long Monza direction.

Antonelli accident: from dream to nightmare

The opposite happened to debutant Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The 18-year-old made his debut in an F1 FP1 at home, in Monza, in front of his ‘tifosi’, albeit wearing a Mercedes jumpsuit. The driver from Bologna, who should replace Hamilton at Mercedes in 2025 (no announcement yet), went from fulfilling his dream to a real nightmare in a matter of minutes. Specifically, 12.

The pilot should have been told not to push hard at first, on a dirt track, to progress gradually. But he gave it his all from the beginning and it paid off. On his sixth lap, in only his second turn, he lost the rear of his car on the fast final Parabolica of the Monza track and went into the wall. He managed to get out of his car by himself but morale was low. He wasted his debut in a crash.

In addition, Mercedes wanted to use Monza Free Practice 1 to compare the performance of the new and old floor. The new floor was introduced at Spa but was removed from both races and returned to Zandvoort. At Mercedes they are not sure if it is an evolution and they want to compare it. Hamilton went out with the old floor and Kimi the new, but the team was left with no conclusions on the matter due to the accident.

They will need to complete that task in Free Practice 2 where Russell is back on the wheel of the car he gave to Antonelli for FP1.