F1 Imola GP: Leclerc leads opening practice, Verstappen struggles

Leclerc set the session’s best time – a 1m16.990s – aboard the updated Ferrari shortly after the one-hour FP1 action was stopped by Alex Albon’s Williams shutting down after he hit a kerb hard and ran down the Imola track from Piratella to Acque Minerali, where he stopped on the inside.

Leclerc’s time was set with a second set of soft tyres and pipped Mercedes’ George Russell by 0.104s – the Briton in contention for the leading time even during the early running on harder tyres.

Carlos Sainz finished third 0.130s down to back up Ferrari’s strong start to the weekend at its first home race of 2024.

Red Bull did its soft tyre running much later than the rest, heading out with just a quarter of the session remaining.

Max Verstappen also had to return to the pits to get a visor tear-off removed from a rear brake duct, which meant his tyres had done more miles than would be ideal.

When he did get going, Verstappen set the quickest times in the first and third sectors, but a slow middle sector left him fifth behind team-mate Sergio Perez and 0.25s down on Leclerc.

On a second attempt, Verstappen again went fastest in the opening sector and was 0.006s up on Leclerc after sector two, but when braking for the Variante Alta chicane his rear step out of line wildly and he had to cut the chicane – as Sainz had done in a similar manner earlier.

On a third softs attempt in the session’s dying moments, Verstappen set another purple sector one but then understeered off at high speed through the second part of Acque Minerali and had to skate through the gravel trap.

Yuki Tsunoda took sixth for RB just up the road from the team’s Faenza base, with Lewis Hamilton seventh ahead of Oscar Piastri.

Hamilton also had a mid-session scare when he spun at Acque Minerali with just over 20 minutes remaining after clouting the inside kerb hard aboard his Mercedes, which rapidly went around and speared him off-track but not far enough to hit a wall.

Miami winner Lando Norris ended up down in 16th in the other McLaren.

Imola GP - FP1 results:

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari	30	1'16.990		229.541
2	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	28	+0.104 1'17.094	0.104	229.231
3	C. Sainz Ferrari	55		Ferrari	Ferrari	25	+0.130 1'17.120	0.026	229.154
4	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11		Red Bull	Red Bull	23	+0.243 1'17.233	0.113	228.819
5	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	21	+0.250 1'17.240	0.007	228.798
6	Y. Tsunoda RB	22		RB	Red Bull	29	+0.398 1'17.388	0.148	228.360
7	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44		Mercedes	Mercedes	27	+0.418 1'17.408	0.020	228.301
8	L. Norris McLaren	4		McLaren	Mercedes	17	+0.612 1'17.602	0.194	227.731
9	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	25	+0.817 1'17.807	0.205	227.131
10	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		Aston Martin	Mercedes	18	+0.877 1'17.867	0.060	226.956
11	P. Gasly Alpine	10		Alpine	Renault	21	+0.915 1'17.905	0.038	226.845
12	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		Aston Martin	Mercedes	22	+1.082 1'18.072	0.167	226.360
13	D. Ricciardo RB	3		RB	Red Bull	26	+1.152 1'18.142	0.070	226.157
14	E. Ocon Alpine	31		Alpine	Renault	29	+1.622 1'18.612	0.470	224.805
15	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	50		Haas		31	+1.677 1'18.667	0.055	224.648
16	V. Bottas Sauber	77		Sauber	Ferrari	23	+1.837 1'18.827	0.160	224.192
17	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24		Sauber	Ferrari	18	+2.139 1'19.129	0.302	223.336
18	L. Sargeant Williams	2		Williams	Mercedes	22	+2.911 1'19.901	0.772	221.178
19	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	8	+3.060 1'20.050	0.149	220.767
20	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		Haas	Ferrari	20	+4.069 1'21.059	1.009	218.018
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