Charles Leclerc spins three times at treacherous Imola but still leads Ferrari one-two

F1 championship leader Charles Leclerc survived three spins at a treacherous Imola to lead the way in the only practice session for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix ahead of qualifying.

The rain had started falling on Thursday afternoon, turning heavy overnight and into the morning, and while it had eased by the start of FP1, it naturally continued to play havoc.

Throughout the hour-long session, with all the drivers conducting as much running as possible knowing the conditions would still be prevalent for afternoon qualifying, there were multiple spins and offs across the gravel given the slippery circuit.

Leclerc was chief among the spinners, doing so on three occasions, initially at the right-left kink of the Variant Alta, then later on the run down to Acque Minerale, and finally emerging out of Tamburello.

The Monégasque, however, was still a cut above his rivals as he finished the session with a leading time of one minute 29.402, finishing almost nine-tenths of a second clear of Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz.

The only driver closest to the Scuderia pair was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who was 1.465s adrift of Leclerc, with the Dutchman then 1.572s clear of Kevin Magnussen in his Haas who was followed on the timesheet by team-mate Mick Schumacher, with the duo split by half-a-second.

For Lewis Hamilton, it was another problematic session in his Mercedes as the seven-time champion was left languishing in a miserable 18th, just over seven seconds back.

Hamilton initially complained he could not switch on the intermediate tires once they could finally be run and that he lacked grip later in the session.

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