Upgraded Ferrari fastest in Imola FP1, Verstappen off twice

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc topped the opening Formula 1 practice session of the 2024 race weekend at Imola, as the dominant Red Bull team looked unusually vulnerable once again.

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Key moments

• Red Bulls out of top three
• Ferrari, Mercedes out front
• Hamilton in messy session
• Tsunoda catches the eye
• Albon causes red flag

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Red Bull was beaten in Miami - with the aid of safety car timing but also a genuine race day pace deficit to McLaren - but the more conventional Imola circuit (paired with a more conventional weekend format) was supposed to restore normality.

And while there's still plenty of time for said normality to be restored, the Red Bulls were hardly protagonists in the hour-long opening practice at the Italian venue.

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were the only drivers doing performance running on the soft tyre in the early stages of the session, but neither ended up in the top three by the time their runs concluded.

And though they had a theoretical track evolution advantage over their rivals late on as they pushed later than the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes on new softs, again neither could breach that top three.

Perez ended up fourth, 0.007 seconds up on Verstappen, who was fastest in the first and third sector but complained of the entry into Acque Minerali being "a disaster" as he had "no f**king grip there". He was also told he was losing time at Tosa and Piratella - and then had a major moment coming into Variante Gresini, cutting the chicane as he caught a major snap and just barely avoided a much bigger crash.

Another attempt in the final minute of the session went begging as Verstappen went into the gravel at Acque Minerali, unable to get his RB20 turned for the right-hander coming out of the section.

It's really not Max's day so far 👀

Another quick lap goes begging as the Red Bull slides through the gravel at Acque Minerali in the dying seconds of the session#F1 #ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/CAF2KTM8gg

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 17, 2024

Ferrari, which has brought a major upgrade package to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, had a strong start on home soil - its drivers were only sixth and seventh after their opening runs, but had used hards, and were both in the mix for top spot once swapping for the soft rubber.

That top spot ultimately went to Leclerc by a tenth over Mercedes' George Russell, with the troubled W15 looking credible - as Russell had also gone fastest in his earlier run on the medium tyre.

But his team-mate Lewis Hamilton had a remarkably untidy session, first dipping into the gravel at Piratella, then having a massive spin coming out of Acque Minerali, and then having another visit to the gravel late on.

And around it goes! 🔁

Hamilton's Mercedes spins at Acque Minerali but he escapes without damage#F1 #ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/hC7atGJcnl

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 17, 2024

It meant Hamilton ended the session seventh, behind RB's Yuki Tsunoda - a standout of FP1, just four tenths off the pace, at the track where his team (based just a 15km drive away from Imola) carries out its shakedowns and filming days. He was also eye-catchingly fast on the hard tyre in the early going.

Tsunoda, who caught a potential spin after dipping his wheels into the gravel at Rivazza, was ultimately three quarters of a second up on team-mate Daniel Ricciardo - himself a visitor to the gravel in the same section.

McLaren was in the mix early on through Oscar Piastri on mediums, but its two cars ended up eighth and ninth, Norris two tenths up on Piastri after a session in which he'd experienced some car issues.

They weren't as significant as the issues for Williams driver Alex Albon, though, whose first session after signing a new deal with the team ended less than 20 minutes in when his car shut off coming through Acque Minerali, necessitating a five-minute red flag stoppage.

Elsewhere, there were some complaints about bouncing from the likes of Pierre Gasly, his Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu (Sauber) - with Gasly describing it as "the worst we've had this year" and saying he "can't even see where I'm going in a straight".

Haas practice stand-in Oliver Bearman was a credible 15th, shrugging off a crash in Formula 2 practice earlier on Friday.

There was no direct comparison with regular team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, though, as he set no representative low-fuel lap on what was remarkably his first-ever session at Imola.