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Rain may have fallen on the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza during the first practice session for this year’s Italian Grand Prix, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of the rambunctious Tifosi in attendance.
Free Practice One, the only on-track session forecasted to be rainy this weekend—was led by Force India’s Sergio Perez by more than a half second over his closest rival in the downpour, Kimi Räikkönen. As rain setup knowledge has minimal value during a race weekend expected to be dry, few cars ran more than a handful of laps. Even McLaren junior Lando Norris (who borrowed Stoffel Vandoorne’s car) enjoyed relatively little of the session, with his running limited to nine laps.
Scarcely two minutes and one lap into the Free Practice Two, Marcus Ericsson endured a colossal crash at the end of the pit straight, which saw his car unexpectedly spearing left into the wall under braking before tumbling end over end.
Ericsson extricated himself from the car and was taken to the medical center while the session red-flagged, although drivers weren’t done having off-track sojourns for the day. Forty minutes after practice resumed, Sebastian Vettel made a detour of his own, spinning from the Parabolica across the gravel and almost into the tire wall. He was able to recover his Ferrari under its own power.
A full list of each driver’s best practice time can be found below.
- Sebastian Vettel/Ferrari – 1:21.105, -16.762 from FP1
- Kimi Räukkönen/Ferrari – 1:21.375, -13.175 from FP1
- Lewis Hamilton/Mercedes – 1:21.392, -15.154 from FP1
- Valtteri Bottas/Mercedes – 1:21.803, -14.435 from FP1
- Max Verstappen/Red Bull – 1:22.154, -13.511 from FP1
- Daniel Ricciardo/Red Bull – 1:22.296, -12.911 from FP1
- Esteban Ocon/Force India – 1:22.930, -11.663 from FP1
- Sergio Perez/Force India – 1:22.942, -11.058 from FP1
- Charles Leclerc/Alfa Romeo Sauber – 1:22.965, -13.683 from FP1
- Nico Hülkenberg/Renault – 1:23.063, -13.044 from FP1
- Romain Grosjean/Haas – 1:23.077, -14.606 from FP1
- Carlos Sainz Jr./Renault – 1:23.193, -12.802 from FP1
- Kevin Magnussen/Haas – 1:23.233, -13.833 from FP1
- Pierre Gasly/Toro Rosso-Honda – 1:23.402, -12.036 from FP1
- Sergey Sirotkin/Williams – 1:23.514, -14.415 from FP1
- Brendon Hartley/Toro Rosso-Honda – 1:23.531, -11.493 from FP1
- Lance Stroll/Williams – 1:23.566, -14.687 from FP1
- Fernando Alonso/McLaren – 1:23.741, -13.685 from FP1
- Stoffel Vandoorne/McLaren – 1:24.084 (No FP1 Time)
- Marcus Ericsson/Alfa Romeo Sauber – 1:37.790 (No FP2 Time)
- Lando Norris/McLaren – 1:38.282 (No FP2 Time)
