Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc leads the first session of the Italian Grand Prix, the sixteenth round of the 2022 Formula One World Championship.
At the start of the session, Mercedes’ Aston Martin test driver Nick de Vries came out, followed by Tsunoda, Magnussen, Ocon and Sainz.
When Verstappen exited the general standings with 1:25.230, Gasly lost control of his car in the slick first turn, and let his team know that there was a problem with the car.
Verstappen improved his time to 1:23.233 in front of Ocon, Albon, Alonso and Perez in fifth, Alonso improved his timing and moved to second place, 8 tenths of a second behind Verstappen’s time.
Verstappen continued to improve his time on the hard tires to 1:22.853 d, a full second ahead of everyone else, while the Mercedes duo Russell and Hamilton were 12th and 13th, respectively.
With the half-time lapse of the session, all the cars returned to the garage except for Tsunoda, who improved his timing and moved to second place on the WFT tyres, 9 tenths of a second behind Verstappen’s time.
Leclerc advanced to the top of the general classification after recording 1:22.410 d on soft tires, 4 tenths of a second behind Verstappen’s time, after which Russell moved to third place and Hamilton to seventh place.
Then Sainz improved his timing and moved to second place behind Leclerc and in front of Russell and Hamilton, with Verstappen falling to fifth place, a difference of only 0.430 seconds.
In the last minutes of the session, Sainz improved his time to 1:22.487, a difference of 0.077 seconds from the lead time of Leclerc, and continued in second place until the checkered flag appeared in front of the Mercedes duo in third and fourth places, while Verstappen was satisfied with fifth.
Sixth is finished for Ocon, ahead of Alonso in seventh, Tsunoda in eighth, Bottas in ninth and Ricciardo in tenth.