Monza, FP1: Bottas tops first practice session in Italy

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas went quickest in the opening practice session for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton by over two tenths of a second as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen crashed out.

The session was approaching the halfway mark when Verstappen lost control in the Ascari chicane and spun off. He hit the wall, beraking his front wing and causing damage to the nose cone. He was able to keep his car going, however, and limped back to the pit lane as the red flag were shown. He later rejoined the session with approximately 20 minutes left on the clock and ended the session in fifth place.

Prior to the Dutchman’s crash, Bottas had led the way on medium tyres but following he stoppage the field began to focus on soft tyres running and Bottas posted a best lap of 1:20.703s to beat Hamilton.

Third place in the session went to Alex Albon in the second Red Bull. The Thai driver finished almost eight tenths of a second behind Bottas, while Daniil Kvyat made a strong start for AlphaTauri with fourth place, just five hundredths of a second behind the lead Red Bull.

With Verstappen fifth, P6 in the session went to Pierre Gasly in the second AlphaTauri. The Frenchman finished as the last man within a second of Bottas and set his time on medium tyres.

Despite setting an identical time to McLaren’s Lando Norris, Racing Point driver Sergio Pérez took seventh place by virtue of establishing the time earlier in the session. Daniel Ricciardo finished in ninth place and the top 10 order was rounded out by Carlos Sainz in the second McLaren.