@ScuderiaFerrari’s @Charles_Leclerc tops slippery FP1. #ItalianGP #F1

Charles Leclerc topped a wet free practice one session at the Italian Grand Prix, which included three red flags.

The winner of last weekend’s Belgian GP began the Scuderia’s home race in style, after emerging with the fastest time as the Autodromo Nazionale Monza continued to dry and the lap times continued to tumble.

Leclerc lead the McLaren pairing of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris during a slippery, three-time red flag inflicted 90 minute session as the drivers struggled to handle the difficult conditions at Monza, where a heavy storm cell hit overnight before the conditions improved throughout the morning.

The first flyers were completed on the blue-branded full wet compounds but the field switched to intermediates early on.

The first red flag was waved when Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen went off at Parabolica just before it hit the half an hour mark.

It took a little while to extract the Ferrari-powered C38 of Raikkonen and when the session went green seven minutes later, it was stopped almost immediately.

Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was the next casualty as he lost control of his RP19 racer exiting the Ascari Chicane.

Sainz also suffered a spin at the same corner but Perez came out unlucky with the Mexican sliding backwards across the track and whacking the wall heavily.

That turned the RP19 around with force and caused the front-left to slam the wall, leaving Perez stuck.

Drivers were able to complete some normal running in-between the second and third red flags as the track continued to dry although many complained of tyre temperature issues.

Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly reported a “handbrake feeling” under-braking after causing the final red flag when he beached his Honda-powered STR14 racer on the sausage kerb at the second part of the Variante Rettifilo.

Gasly was able to continue thanks to some help from the marshals but the session was already stopped.

As the lap times drop, the drivers continued to struggle at the Variante Rettifilo, which remained the wettest part on track, although the other Alfa Romeo Racing C38 of Antonio Giovinazzi became the worst-off when he wound up facing the wrong way after spinning.

Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon hit P1 with a 1:31.250 after a series of quick laps, before the Mercedes pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton jumped ahead and remained there with their intermediate-running completed with ten minutes left on the clock.

Ferrari then sent Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel on the yellow side-walled mediums in the closing stages of the session.

Leclerc on his initial run on the mediums, was two seconds slower in both the first and second sectors, but with DRS free to use and the track at it’s driest, saw the Monegasque-youngster get personal best int he final sector.

The tough conditions at the start of the lap meant even the fastest-of-all final sectors was not enough for any driver to improve on the slick rubber.

Norris slid off-track at the damp Variante Rettifilo on soft tyres, while Leclerc suffered a small moment at the Variante Della Roggia on his second flyer, as did team-mate Vettel.

But Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat moved from seventh to the top of the time-sheets with less than a minute remaining, triggering a flurry of last-lap improvements.

Sainz knocked Kvyat off top spot, also on soft compounds, as Leclerc then jumped to second behind the McLaren before snatching P1 on his final lap with a 1:27.905.

Norris gave McLaren a two-three, while Hamilton moved to fourth on the soft compounds, Albon rounded out the top five and Kvyat dropped to sixth.

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen ended opening practice in seventh while Vettel was struggling on mediums and wound up eighth on the time-sheets.

Bottas took a spin at the Variante Rettifilo Chicane and could not improve on softs, so the Finn slumped to ninth with Gasly completing the top ten.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Giovinazzi was 11th and ahead of Racing Point’s Lance Stroll who was 12th and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo who finished 13th.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean completed FP1 in 14th and 16th respectively with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg who split the pairing in 15th.

The ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of Robert Kubica and George Russell followed in 17th and 18th respectively as the aforementioned Perez and Raikkonen failed to set a lap time due to their incidents.

You can read the full Formula 1 Heineken Gran Premio D’Italia 2019 Free Practice One Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1013/italy/practice-1.html

You can also read this weekend’s Formula 1 Heineken Gran Premio D’Italia Race Preview at the link: #F1 @Heineken #GranPremio D’Italia 2019 Preview – @F1