Italy – Free Practice 1: Charles Leclerc dominates and a deluge of red flags

The Italian Grand Prix weekend begins with the first free practice session on a soaked track.

The conditions were slippery, and we witnessed many mistakes from the drivers.

Romain Grosjean is the first to go out with blue-banded tires followed by Kevin Magnussen. Judging by the onboard camera from Romain Grosjean, the track is clearly slippery.

The drivers are coming out one by one for an installation lap that will serve as a reconnaissance lap given the weather conditions. As usual, only the Mercedes cars remain in the pits.

The session starts off lively with Lando Norris setting the first benchmark on his McLaren with a time of 1:38.569. After 20 minutes, conditions remain challenging for the drivers even though the rain has stopped. The track is starting to dry out in some areas, so the drivers are logically taking more risks. Some miss their corners and go straight at the end of the starting straight, cut through the second chicane, or treat us to impressive 360s, particularly Carlos Sainz Jr and Valtteri Bottas.

Three red flags in FP1

During his first timed lap, Räikkönen was a bit too sluggish on the accelerator pedal. Getting too close to the white line, he eased off and lost the Alfa Romeo on re-acceleration. He ended up in the gravel trap, having only lightly touched the tire wall. Stuck in the gravel, a red flag was still needed to safely remove the car.

As soon as the session resumed, it was Sergio Perez’s turn to end up against the wall. Too much throttle exiting Ascari resulted in a spin. His car was seriously damaged at the front and rear suspensions as well as at the front and rear wings. This caused another red flag.

The third red flag is waved for Pierre Gasly’s Toro Rosso. He spun at the first chicane and got stuck on the orange sausage kerb. He manages to reverse initially to free himself from the kerb, but eventually asks for the marshals’ help to get his car facing the right direction. Nothing serious or broken for the French driver, but the red flag is nonetheless waved to allow him to restart safely.

After an hour of the session, the track begins to dry, and the drivers go out again with intermediate tires. Lewis Hamilton finally clocks his first time with 1:31.844, followed by Valtteri Bottas with 1:30.900.

It’s finally Leclerc who sets the fastest time at 1:27.905 at the very end of the session with super soft tires, while behind him Lewis Hamilton is hindered by Sebastian Vettel and can only finish in fourth place behind the McLarens of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris.

An interesting but difficult session to analyze, as the track dried out as the drivers ran. We need to wait until the end of the session to see the tires for the dry.

Notably present on the circuit is Fernando Alonso.

Results of Free Practice 1 of the 2019 Italian Grand Prix:

From our special correspondent in Italy.