Hamilton leads Verstappen in opening training in Monza. at

After Hamilton lost the lead in the drivers’ standings at Zandvoort last Sunday, Hamilton made an early statement to overtake Verstappen again by setting the pace at Monza on Friday afternoon.

Hamilton spent the early part of the session swapping the fastest lap times with Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who led the timesheets halfway through the session.

After Hamilton saw that Verstappen was the fastest when switching to the soft tires, he continued on the slower middle compound but still managed to snatch the top spot.

Hamilton’s lap of 1: 20.926 was enough to put him at the checkered flag at P1, despite a series of late driver efforts on the soft tires that Mercedes decided against on both cars.

Verstappen had to settle for second place for Red Bull, which was 0.452 seconds behind Hamilton’s time, while Valtteri Bottas was another seven hundredths of a second behind in third place.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

At the beginning of the session, Verstappen reported that he was struggling with his car at low speed and noticed that there was no rear grip at the exit of the Rettifilo chicane.

Verstappen’s P2 time was briefly beaten by McLaren’s Lando Norris with a few minutes left in the session, only to cancel the British driver’s time for exceeding the track limits in Parabolica.

Norris was warned over team radio that he would encounter a number of drivers slowing their outlaps, which served as “good practice in how bad it could be in qualifying” when the drivers attempted a tow and one Find gap on the route.

Aston Martin enjoyed an impressive session when Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel finished fourth and sixth, the duo parted ways with the 2020 Monza winner, Pierre Gasly. All three drivers drove their best laps on the soft compound tire.

Home favorite Ferrari only made one car in the top 10 when Carlos Sainz Jr. finished seventh, nine tenths of a second behind Hamilton’s benchmark. Team-mate Charles Leclerc was only able to finish 11th overall, although he drove well enough for sixth for a time before being canceled due to track limits.

Fernando Alonso improved to eighth place on a late lap for Alpine, pulling ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, with both drivers setting their best times on Medium. Sergio Perez completed the top 10 for Red Bull after winning just a tenth of a second off his P1 mid-session time.

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Norris finished the session for McLaren in 12th place after his deleted time improved his best lap by nine tenths of a second. He reported at the beginning of the session that his brake pedal felt “spongy”, which resulted in him missing the first chicane three times.

Antonio Giovinazzi finished 13th for Alfa Romeo ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who encountered confusion with his seat belts and a problem with the power supply during practice.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon finished 15th in FP1 ahead of Robert Kubica, who continued to represent Kimi Raikkonen at Alfa Romeo and returned to the track where he took his first F1 podium in 2006.

The Williams duo George Russell and Nicholas Latifi only made it to positions 17 and 18, while the Haas couple Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher supported the timesheets.