Perez puts Force India on top at wet Monza

Sergio Perez took advantage of a wet but drying track at Monza to put Force India on top of the first practice session for the Italian Grand Prix.

A dry line was beginning to emerge in the closing minutes of the session when Perez used a set of intermediates to set the quickest time with a lap of exactly 1’34.000. Team mate Esteban Ocon made it two Force Indias inside the top three, the pair separated by Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel’s running in the opening session was limited to just four laps due to technical problems.

The session began on a very wet track following a lengthy downpour which began hours before the session started, and forced the cancellation of the morning’s GP3 practice.

Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg were the first drivers onto the wet track and queued at the pit exit for several minutes before the session began. Both have fresh power units fitted for this weekend.

Ricciardo ran into trouble immediately after joining the track and briefly looked as though he might come to a stop between the two Lesmo corners when his engine went into safety mode. He was able to make it back to the pits, however, and ended the session fifth fastest behind Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley.

The Mercedes drivers completed few laps and ended the session 10th and 11th. Lando Norris, the only test driver who ran in the opening 90 minutes, covered nine laps in Stoffel Vandoorne’s car and ended the session last.

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Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’34.000		18
2	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’34.550	0.550	28
3	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	1’34.593	0.593	17
4	28	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso-Honda	1’35.024	1.024	17
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1’35.207	1.207	13
6	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso-Honda	1’35.438	1.438	19
7	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1’35.665	1.665	10
8	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Renault	1’35.995	1.995	15
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1’36.107	2.107	15
10	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1’36.238	2.238	8
11	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’36.546	2.546	6
12	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber-Ferrari	1’36.648	2.648	10
13	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’37.066	3.066	13
14	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault	1’37.426	3.426	14
15	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1’37.683	3.683	13
16	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1’37.790	3.790	11
17	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’37.867	3.867	4
18	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams-Mercedes	1’37.929	3.929	10
19	18	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	1’38.253	4.253	8
20	47	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault	1’38.282	4.282	9

First practice visual gaps

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

2018 Italian Grand Prix

• Grosjean’s Monza disqualification upheld by FIA Appeal Court
• Haas rival rubbishes ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ claim
• Ferrari driver change was “the right choice for Kimi” – Arrivabene
• Verstappen: Other drivers got away with worse at Monza
• Renault broke agreement with Grosjean protest – Haas

Browse all 2018 Italian Grand Prix articles