Early crash ends Antonelli's surreal F1 practice debut

Kimi Antonelli's Formula 1 weekend debut came to an abrupt end just 10 minutes into the opening Italian Grand Prix practice session when he crashed on his second flying lap in Mercedes' W15.

The Mercedes protege, who is widely expected to join its works line-up next season, was handed presumed future team-mate George Russell's car for his grand prix weekend bow in the 60-minute first practice.

He made an instant impression by going fastest of all on his first flying lap on soft tyres, setting a 1m23.955s on the resurfaced track (which, for comparison, was 1.3s slower than Max Verstappen's benchmark from the equivalent 2023 session).

Antonelli had been bumped down to fourth as he lined up for his second flying lap, on which he'd set a personal best in the first sector and an overall best time in the middle sector.

But he spun at Alboreto, the final corner previously known as the Parabolica, losing the rear of the car with a snap of oversteer at the apex of the right-hander.

That took Antonelli all the way into the gravel trap and the tyre wall on the outside of the corner, with the front wing of the W15 ripped off in the impact.

Antonelli was quick to report that he was OK, apologetically adding: "F***. Yeah. F***. Sorry."

Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff replied: "Kimi, all good. All good, Kimi."

Antonelli was fourth at the time of the crash, which brought a red flag out that wiped out around 15 minutes of the session.

The other Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, who Antonelli is set to replace in 2025, was fastest at the time of the red flag.

Antonelli was taken to the medical centre after his crash but was seen returning to the pitlane with 10 minutes of FP1 remaining.

Edd Straw's trackside view

I came down to the first chicane to watch Kimi Antonelli's debut as an F1 driver on a race weekend, his first experience of this year's Mercedes. It's a slow chicane, offering a good chance to see how drivers manipulate the car, so you get a bit of a feel for what they're doing.

Of course, it didn't last very long.

The one thing that struck me was that the first lap was quite impressive. Yuki Tsunoda came through, got the braking wrong and went off, then Antonelli came through. He looked a little bit conservative, as you'd expect for his first flying lap, but got through nice and tidily. Then we saw Lewis Hamilton go deep on the brakes here and struggle, and Max Verstappen also bailed out and cut the corner.

Antonelli had the right feel for how aggressively to push and you have to remember he was out not long before in his F2 car, so he'd had a feel for the track with the new surface and the conditions - so he put that to good use. He rotated the car well, doing everything you'd expect from a competent driver on their first lap (albeit nothing extraordinary).

On his second lap he pushed the braking a little bit more; there was a point in that turn-in phase where he looked like he might have a little trouble, but he was trailing the brake and he dealt with it very well, getting the car rotated and through. It wasn't perfect, and he didn't carry through as much speed as he might have done, but it was tidy enough.

So he'd started to lean on the car a little bit and was starting to show what he can do in the car. Then obviously what happened, happened - well out of view from me because I'm down here at the first corner.

It was an impressive debut for as long as it lasted but I only saw two flying laps, so we never got to see how he evolved through the session. He was clearly confident - perhaps a little too confident.

What else happened in FP1?

Antonelli's crash was the only major incident in FP1 but there was still plenty to digest from the 37 minutes of representative running left in the session aftewards.

Carlos Sainz running wide at Alboreto, Hamilton locking up at the della Roggia chicane and Esteban Ocon looping his Alpine round at the first chicane suggested the more experienced drivers also had some difficulty reading the new track surface.

Red Bull hasn't won a race since the Spanish GP at Barcelona in late June but Monza is expected to be a happier hunting ground for the capricious but efficient RB20.

Max Verstappen lent credence to that theory by going fastest in FP1, usurping the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc with six minutes left on the clock.

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Points leader Verstappen ended the session with a best time of 1m21.676s, which was just shy of a second faster than his best FP1 time in 2023. It put him 0.228 seconds up on Leclerc, with chief title rival Lando Norris 0.013s further back in third.

Ferrari has a more significant development package than any other team at Monza and the second SF-24 of Sainz was fourth, 0.450s off top spot and one thousandth up Valtteri Bottas's eye-catchingly quick lap for Sauber.

Bottas, who remains without a point in 2024 (as does his team), set his lap on softs far earlier than most and led for a good chunk of the session before ultimately ending up in fifth.

Sergio Perez was ninth in the second Red Bull, 0.635s off pacesetting team-mate Verstappen, behind Oscar Piastri, Hamilton and the Williams of Alex Albon and ahead of Fernando Alonso, who rounded out the top 10 for Aston Martin.

Franco Colapinto, in his first practice session as Williams's second driver ahead of his grand prix debut on Sunday, ended FP1 in 17th, 1.204s off Verstappen and 0.660s away from team-mate Albon.

His was a largely uneventful session until the final few moments when he too had a moment at Alboreto.

Colapinto likewise had a mid-corner snap of oversteer but had slowed the FW46 down sufficiently before it turned around with him, and escaped with a trip through the gravel on the exit of the corner.

Antonelli ultimately ended the session slowest of all, with his early lap 2.279s off Verstappen's benchmark.