Ferrari in front, Verstappen upset, Hamilton almost crashed. What did the first practice in Imola bring?

Formula 1 has the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on the agenda this weekend. All the action at the Imola circuit kicked off with the first practice session on Friday, which was won by Charles Leclerc. The first runs went badly for McLaren, with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton also upset.

Imola, Italy, hosts its seventh race weekend of the season under the banner of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. All the action at the already historic circuit, where Formula One first ran an official championship in 1980, kicked off with the first free practice session on Friday.

And as is customary, teams are using the practice sessions to test new upgrades, gradually fine tune the set-up for the entire race weekend and gather data for the rest of the season.

So the results from FP1 (Free Practice 1 – ed.) are not very representative. However, one thing was already clear from the opening practice session. And that is the fact that drivers find it difficult to race on this classic circuit in the modern era of Formula 1.

Not only does the narrow track not offer much room for overtaking, the highly efficient aerodynamics meant that the drivers struggled to keep the car on the track at all in some parts.

Verstappen upset, Leclerc the winner

During practice, Alex Albon shut down his monocoque, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz went off track, and Lewis Hamilton almost crashed.

Anyway, as far as the results are concerned, the Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc won FP1 with a time of 1:16.990. George Russell (Mercedes) finished second, with Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz third. Full results can be found in the attached results below.

Needless to say, Aston Martin brought the biggest package of upgrades to Imola. Ferrari is also promising a lot from its upgrades, with Mercedes also bringing improvements.

We discussed the technical upgrades of the teams and what to expect from them in the preview for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on our Motorsportal channel.

Source