Monza, FP1: Mercedes dominate opening practice in Italy

Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2

By Franck Drui

1 September 2017 - 11:35
Monza, FP1: Mercedes dominate opening

Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2 in first practice ahead of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix with the three-time champion finishing a second clear of championship leader Sebastian Vettel who finished third behind Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton set a best lap of 1:21.537s on the supersoft compound Pirelli tyres to finish 0.435 seconds ahead of Bottas, with Vettel 1.115s off the pace.

With the session starting under heavily overcast skies, drivers quickly set about their preparations and after half and hour Bottas was in charge on soft tyres, with the Finn in P1 with a time of 1:22.086s.

Mercedes then moved to supersoft running and Hamilton leapt ahead with a lap of 1:21868. Over the following laps he chipped away at the time to eventually settle on his benchmark of 1:121:537.

The rain that had been threatening all morning then arrived and running ceased. The shower eventually abated and there was a flurry of activity in the closing minutes, though there were no significant improvements.

Kimi Räikkönen finished just under four hundredths of a second behind Ferrari team-mate in fourth place. The two-by-two nature of the session was continued by Red Bull Racing, who saw Daniel Ricciardo finish fifth, just 0.007 ahead of sixth-place team-mate Max Verstappen.

Both drivers are set for a tricky weekend, however, as they have both opted to take power-unit related grid penalties in Monza, with a view to bringing an optimised package to the Singapore Grand Prix where the team has a better chance of posting a good result than in power-hungry Monza. Ricciardo is set to drop 20 places on Sunday’s grid and Verstappen 15 places.

Force India took seventh and eighth place with Sergio Pérez ahead of team-mate Esteban Ocon.

Stoffel Vandoorne was the ninth for McLaren, while team-mate Fernando Alonso finished in 15th place. Alonso took an engine upgrade in FP1 and therefore he will take a 35-place grid penalty on Sunday. Williams’ Felipe Massa completed the top 10. Carlos Sainz, in 11th place this morning, is also set to take a grid drop on Sunday, with the Toro Rosso driver incurring a 10-place power unit penalty.

Pos.DriverTeamTimeLaps
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1:21.537 28
02 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes AMG 1:21.972 31
03 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:22.652 24
04 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:22.689 28
05 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Tag Heuer 1:22.742 28
06 Max Verstappen Red Bull Tag Heuer 1:22.749 23
07 Sergio Pérez Force India Mercedes 1:23.317 36
08 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 1:23.400 34
09 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Honda 1:23.465 24
10 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 1:23.561 37
11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso Renault 1:23.680 22
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:23.973 22
13 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 1:23.991 30
14 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Renault 1:24.012 27
15 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 1:24.015 17
16 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:24.079 22
17 Nico Hulkenberg Renault F1 1:24.542 17
18 Jolyon Palmer Renault F1 1:25.166 21
19 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber Ferrari 1:25.223 26
20 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1:25.687 17

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