Carlos Sainz, Ferrari driver, celebrated his 29th birthday and delighted the Italian team's fans by achieving the fastest lap in the free practice sessions held today, Friday, ahead of the Italian Grand Prix in the Formula 1 World Championship. The Spanish driver recorded a time of 1:21.355, surpassing Lando Norris, the McLaren driver, by 0.019 seconds during the second free practice session, which saw red flags raised twice.
Max Verstappen, the Red Bull driver aiming for a tenth consecutive victory, achieved the fastest time in the first practice session with a time of 1:22.657. Sainz finished second in the first free practice session. Verstappen, leading the overall standings, recorded the fifth fastest time after being slowed down by traffic during qualifying simulations and declined a chance for another run after race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase opted to stick to the original plan.
Verstappen stated, "From my side, it could have been a little bit better, I'm still working on the transition from low-speed to maximum speed, but I'm confident that we will achieve what's needed." He added, "I think the practice was overall satisfying, but I faced traffic in the second sector during the simulation, and we didn't complete enough laps in the race simulation."
His teammate Sergio Perez, who is second in the World Championship standings, 138 points behind after 13 of 22 races, finished third in both free practice sessions but caused the second practice session to stop after losing control of his car seven minutes from the end. Perez said, "I thought I was controlling it, but I touched some gravel, and that was enough to lose control,” indicating that the damage was not significant.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari driver, and Oscar Piastri, McLaren driver, finished fourth in the first and second free practices respectively. Verstappen won at Monza last year, with Leclerc starting from the front, and he is in top form this season with 11 victories so far. He matched the record for nine consecutive wins set by the retired Sebastian Vettel in 2013 on his way to a fourth consecutive title with Red Bull.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, whose new contract with Mercedes keeps him until the end of 2025, finished eighth in the first practice and seventeenth in the second. Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes used only hard tires during the first practice. The Ferrari drivers and George Russell started today with new power units, part of four units allocated for them this season, hence they won't face any penalties.
New Zealander Liam Lawson began his second race in the championship as a substitute for the injured Daniel Ricciardo, the AlphaTauri driver based in Italy, finishing thirteenth in the first free practice and eighteenth in the second. Brazilian reserve driver Felipe Drugovich, Formula 2 champion, replaced Lance Stroll in Aston Martin during the practices as part of the requirement to give young drivers time on the track, finishing in eighteenth place. Stroll later caused the red flags in the second free practice due to a fuel system issue and failed to set a time.
