Antonelli Crashes on debut.
Max Verstappen set the pace during the initial practice session before the Italian Grand Prix, while Kimi Antonelli caused a red flag incident by crashing on his debut FP1 drive for Mercedes.
Antonelli was not the only newcomer participating in the session; Franco Colapinto took the wheel for Williams after it was announced that he would replace Logan Sargeant for the rest of the season.
The rookies, along with the rest of the field, were led onto the track by the experienced Fernando Alonso at 1330 local time under hot and sunny conditions. Antonelli wasted no time in making an impact by claiming the top spot on the timesheets with his first timed lap.
The start of the session was bustling with activity as everyone sought to familiarize themselves with the freshly resurfaced tarmac at Monza. However, the proceedings were abruptly halted when Antonelli crashed into the barriers at Parabolica just 10 minutes into the session, experiencing a sudden loss of control in the middle of the corner.
Fortunately, the teenager escaped without any injuries, and Mercedes chief Toto Wolff promptly reassured him over the radio that everything was fine. The red flags were waved while they recovered the W15 and inspected the barriers, before the cars resumed running at 1353 local time.
As the session progressed, the lap times began to drop rapidly, and to everyone’s surprise, Valtteri Bottas claimed the top spot halfway through on the soft tyres. His impressive time of 1m 22.127s put him 0.087s ahead of Lewis Hamilton in second place.
However, FP1 did not go entirely smoothly, as a few drivers had some challenging moments. One of them was Carlos Sainz, who experienced a slight loss of control later in the hour but managed to keep his Ferrari on the track. “Tricky one,” commented the Spaniard afterwards.
In a weekend where the Scuderia introduced upgrades, Charles Leclerc briefly took the lead in the final stages of the session before being overtaken by Verstappen. The Red Bull driver set the fastest lap time of 1m 21.676s.
