Max Verstappen set the fastest time of the first practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, while Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s FP1 debut ended early with a heavy crash.
There was huge interest in Antonelli, who only turned 18 last Sunday and is expected to be confirmed as a Mercedes driver for 2025. However, an encouraging start that saw him top the times after his first lap was followed by a heavy crash at Parabolica on his second attempt.
Antonelli was immediately on the pace on soft tires but then lost the rear entering the final corner, spinning into the barrier at high speed and heavily damaging the car. While he was unhurt in the incident, it brought out a red flag after just 10 minutes of running, halting proceedings for nearly a quarter of the session.
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Before that incident, Verstappen appeared to be struggling with a braking issue as he missed the first chicane on multiple occasions, but he seemed happier after the resumption and went fastest on a 1m21.676s as the majority of the field set their best times on the soft compound tire.
Charles Leclerc was second quickest as Ferrari brought an upgrade package to its home race, ending up 0.228s adrift of Verstappen but 0.007s ahead of Lando Norris in the McLaren.
There was almost a repeat incident of the Antonelli crash for Carlos Sainz — who ended up fourth fastest — when the Spaniard had to catch a snap of oversteer on entry into Parabolica, but he managed to gather up the car before reaching the gravel.
The final corner was proving particularly challenging and was toughest on the two rookies, with Franco Colapinto — Logan Sargeant’s replacement at Williams — ending his session with a trip through the gravel but managing to keep the car moving and return to the pits.
Prior to that, Colapinto had enjoyed a solid outing and completed 23 laps, gaining valuable mileage in the Williams ahead of his first grand prix. The Argentinian’s best lap was over 0.6s off teammate Alex Albon who ended the session in the top eight, but he will be able to build across two further hours of practice.
There was a surprise in the top five with Valtteri Bottas within half a second of Verstappen, with the Finn spending a spell at the top of the times before being bumped down by some late soft tire runs from the front-runners.
Bottas did have a new power unit in his car as both Stake and Haas drivers received fresh Ferrari engines for the Monza weekend, but it was a similar approach from FP1 for Mercedes as Albon was the only one of its drivers — across both the works and customer teams — not to fit a new set of power unit components.
Aside from Colapinto’s off-track moment, the end of the session also saw a spin for Esteban Ocon, who bounced across the apex curb at the first chicane with the rear of his car after swapping ends, as the drivers had to get to grips with Monza’s new track surface.
