Max Verstappen used just a single set of hard tyres to set the fastest time during opening practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
The championship leader’s best time of a 1’22.657 was 0.046s faster than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jnr as each of the quickest six drivers used just a single set of tyres each during the opening hour of running.The first practice session of the weekend saw overcast skies above the historic Monza circuit but no risk of rain as drivers took to the track for the first time over the weekend. The majority of the field headed out on hard compound tyres, including the two Red Bulls of Verstappen and Sergio Perez, the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sainz as well as the Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Lance Stroll sat out the session in the Aston Martin to allow the team’s junior driver and reigning F2 champion Felipe Drugovich to participate in the team’s first young driver session of the season. However, in the next garage, the Alfa Romeos had trouble getting out of the pit lane, both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu pushed back into the garage after reporting their cars were falling into anti-stall mode.
Verstappen set the early pace with a 1’23.479 on the hard tyres, just three hundredths of a second quicker than team mate Perez. Oscar Piastri put his McLaren to the top of the times on the soft tyres, three-hundredths quicker than the championship leader, before Verstappen improved to post a 1’22.657 on his eighth lap on his hard tyres.
Alfa Romeo eventually got their drivers out on track, but Bottas asked to return to the pits midway through his run after complaining his car was ‘undriveable’. Williams driver Alexander Albon had a moment on the exit of the Ascari chicane, running onto the gravel but recovering back onto the track. Albon returned to the garage to allow the team to assess possible damage to his car.
With tyre sets for the weekend limited by the Alternative Tyre Allocation format, most of those near the top of the standings continued to run on the same set of hard tyres they had run throughout the session. In the later part of the session, teams focused more on longer runs, with no changes in the order in the later minutes.
Sainz ended the session second-fastest, also having run on a single set of hard tyres, with Perez third in the second Red Bull. Leclerc was fourth in the second Ferrari ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, Fernando Alonso in sixth and Lando Norris in seventh. Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda and Albon rounded out the top ten.
2023 Italian Grand Prix first practice result
| Position | Number | Driver | Team | Model | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | RB19 | 1’22.657 | 31 | |
| 2 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | SF-23 | 1’22.703 | 0.046 | 28 |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | RB19 | 1’22.834 | 0.177 | 30 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | SF-23 | 1’22.966 | 0.309 | 22 |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | W14 | 1’23.189 | 0.532 | 27 |
| 6 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin-Mercedes | AMR23 | 1’23.214 | 0.557 | 23 |
| 7 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | MCL60 | 1’23.241 | 0.584 | 22 |
| 8 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | W14 | 1’23.269 | 0.612 | 26 |
| 9 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT | AT04 | 1’23.271 | 0.614 | 22 |
| 10 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | FW45 | 1’23.444 | 0.787 | 17 |
| 11 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren-Mercedes | MCL60 | 1’23.446 | 0.789 | 23 |
| 12 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams-Mercedes | FW45 | 1’23.661 | 1.004 | 21 |
| 13 | 40 | Liam Lawson | AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT | AT04 | 1’23.833 | 1.176 | 28 |
| 14 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine-Renault | A523 | 1’23.931 | 1.274 | 25 |
| 15 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | C43 | 1’23.952 | 1.295 | 17 |
| 16 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas-Ferrari | VF-23 | 1’24.067 | 1.410 | 23 |
| 17 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | A523 | 1’24.090 | 1.433 | 25 |
| 18 | 34 | Felipe Drugovich | Aston Martin-Mercedes | AMR23 | 1’24.140 | 1.483 | 24 |
| 19 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | VF-23 | 1’24.217 | 1.560 | 24 |
| 20 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | C43 | 1’24.232 | 1.575 | 17 |
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Coventry Climax
1st September 2023, 14:37
The list would have been more complete if it had said with which compound which time has been achieved.
As this is only P1, it doesn’t matter too much, but for the next session?
Why is the tyre allocation scheme called Alternative, if all it does is just being more restrictive?
‘MRTA’ would therefor have been more appropriate and correct, in other words less misleading.
What – besides the facade of using less tyres overall – is the idea behind it? Will we get Soft TA, Medium TA and Hard TA, with rotating amounts actually behind that, so as to further pointlessly obfuscate things? And then have the FiA claim again we just don’t understand? Can’t we just stop this bloody nonsense please?
I’m in favor of having less tyres being manufactured in the first place and then have less of them being transported around the world, but surely there’s better ways to go about it? Who’s idea was it again to have a need for the amount manufactered that we currently have?
Jere (@jerejj)
1st September 2023, 14:48
I’m perfectly okay with ATA.
Coventry Climax
1st September 2023, 15:10
The name or the concept?
The said objective or the true objective?
With it even being there, with how they go about it, or with how they miss opportunities?
Jere (@jerejj)
1st September 2023, 14:49
Somewhat unrepresentative FP1.
David West
1st September 2023, 17:26
Surely it will be a 1 stopper and Medium/Soft? Wear is low here isn’t it?