Everything that happened in first Italian GP F1 practice

Charles Leclerc led a 1-2 for home team Ferrari in F1’s first practice for the 2022 Italian GP – but it was points leader Max Verstappen who looked quickest.

Key moments:

> Verstappen held up on fastest lap

> Leclerc 0.077s clear of Sainz

> Mercedes in the mix

> Giovinazzi, de Vries join the fray

Verstappen, who will serve a grid penalty of at least five places for the race, led the session by over a second after his initial attempt on hards, with it taking a switch to fresh softs for Leclerc to jump ahead – by four tenths.

And the Dutchman was on course to reclaim the top spot once he himself swapped to new red-walled soft rubber, running three tenths faster than Leclerc after two sectors.

But at that point he came up on Lando Norris, the McLaren driver likewise on a push lap but on hards – and as Norris moved to cover off a potential overtaking attempt from Verstappen heading into Parabolica, the championship leader was left incensed, even though the subsequent slipstream allowed him to at least salvage an 0.013s improvement.

At Ferrari, which is running a yellow-tinted special livery this weekend, Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ended up 0.077s apart out front – albeit the former did also manage another lap good enough for first place after his initial attempt.

Mercedes driver George Russell was under three tenths down after a strong second flyer on softs, before getting irate with Sainz over finding a slow Ferrari at Variante della Roggia, saying: “Oh my God, almost just crashed into the back of Sainz, he just parked there on the exit.”

Lewis Hamilton was a tenth and a half behind team-mate Russell and 0.009s ahead of Verstappen, whose team-mate Sergio Perez was a muted 14th.

Alpine duo Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso completed the top seven, followed by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo – last year’s Monza winner and the highest-placed driver to set his time on mediums.

Of the two FP1-only drivers, Antonio Giovinazzi – taking over Mick Schumacher’s Haas – placed higher in 18th, lapping three tenths off incumbent Kevin Magnussen.

Nyck de Vries, running for Aston Martin in place of Sebastian Vettel after previous outings with Mercedes and Williams this year, had an off at the Ascari chicane while on course to improve on what wound up being the 19th-fastest time.

Sainz also had trip through the gravel at the same corner minutes later.

Practice 1 Results