F1 is back at the Temple of Speed for the 2024 Italian GP FP1 session – with some Ferrari upgrades, fresh faces and a shaken up constructors championship fight, who has topped the time-sheets in FP1?
Going into today’s first Free Practice session at Monza, Mercedes seat contender Kimi Antonelli and new Williams recruit Franco Colapinto had all eyes on them across the paddock to see what lap times they could lock in this session; Ferrari were also a team to keep keen eyes on with their home race upgrades. The Scuderia arrived in Monza with a smaller rear and front wing, shortened wing mirrors and a new diffuser.
Session Begins
With the green flag out, Antonelli produced his first lap in the W15 crossing the line with a 1:23.95 on the soft tyre including a purple sector. While all eyes were on the new recruits, Max Verstappen was displaying the same struggle with understeer that he appeared to also suffer last week at Zandvoort.
Huge Crash for Antonelli
Just ten minutes into FP1, Kimi Antonelli unfortunately brought out the red flag after losing control of his W15, suffering a snap of over-steer on the apex of Parabolica and hit the wall, a tragic conclusion to his F1 debut. Mercedes’ Bradley Lord told Sky Sports F1 that Kimi was being looked after in the medical centre and they aimed to turn the car around for FP2 later. The F2 driver will take his next drive for Mercedes in Mexico.
After the session resumed at 13:53 (CEST), drivers continued to explore the freshly resurfaced track. With Kimi now out of the session, eyes were on Franco Colapinto to see what he could squeeze out of the Williams. After sliding in a few corners and flicking up some gravel, Colapinto eventually found his rhythm. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc expressed on the team radio that he was having some difficulty concerning drivability of his SF-24.
A Speedy Sauber?
Sauber’s Valterri Bottas produced some eyebrow raising lap-times with a 1:22.127 topping the table for the halfway mark of the session, showing some speed we have rarely seen for the Kick Sauber team this season. With 20 minutes remaining in the session, Colapinto was producing consistent yellow sectors placing himself in the top ten bracket of drivers for FP1 so far. In terms of tyres, the grid had an even split of both soft and medium. Interestingly, McLaren placed both drivers on medium tyres with 15 minutes of the session remaining while Red Bull opted for the soft compound for both drivers, keen to beat their competitive speed. Three top teams shared the highest speed territory between Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari with Leclerc placing his Ferrari just 0.228s behind Max Verstappen’s benchmark time of 1:21.676 with Norris falling closely behind the Ferrari driver.
The FP1 session that kicked off the 2024 F1 Italian GP highlighted Red Bull’s determination to reclaim the top speed within the grid and gave us an interesting insight into how the rookies handled the challenge of their first Formula One drive.
Featured Image photo: Red Bull Content Pool
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