F1 Italian GP: Max Verstappen edges Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in opening practice
The two-time world champion was 0.046 seconds faster than Sainz as home favourites Ferrari had both their cars among the FP1 fr꧂ontrunners in the opening hour of practice at Monza.
Perez, who trails Verstappen by 138 p💫oints in the world championship, was 0.177s behind his teammate.
After equalling Sebastian Vettel’s record as the driver with the most wins in a row in a single F1 season last time out at ꦬhis home race at Zandvoort, Verstappen is bidding for a record-breaking 10th consecutive victory this weekend.
It was a fairly uneventful start to Friday’s running, thou🅘gh Verstappen was heard complaining about getting “wayꦡ too much helmet lift” half-way through the session.
Charles Leclerc was 🐬fourth-fastest in the other Ferrari, 0.309s adrift of Verstappen, while George Russell was half a second off the pace in fifth for Mercedes.
Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin sixth, ahead of McLaren’s Lando N🍌orris and fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton, who has penned a new deal to continue alongside Russell at Mercedes until at least the end of 2025.
Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon, who survived a trip through the gravel at Turn 10, com💧pleted the top-10 order for AlphaTauri and Williams respectively.
Aston Martin reserve Felipe Drugovich finished 18th as he deputised for Lance St🐲roll.
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