By Alan Baldwin
MONZA, Italy (Reuters) -Ferrari made a flying start to their home Italian Formula One Grand Prix on Friday but McLaren’s title contender Lando Norris, bouncing back from the body blow of car failure in the previous race, set the practice pace.
The Briton lapped Monza’s sunlit ‘Pista Magica’ with a best lap of one minute and 19.878 seconds in the afternoon’s second session, 0.083 quicker than Ferrari’s 2024 winner Charles Leclerc.
Norris is 34 points behind championship-leading teammate Oscar Piastri with runaway leaders McLaren chasing a sixth win in a row on Sunday.
“At the moment it’s a little bit close for my liking, but we’re not in a bad spot,” said Norris. “We’ve still got a few things to improve, but it’s good we’re still at the top of the timings despite that.”
Former Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz was third fastest for Williams with Piastri fourth and Ferrari’s seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton fifth.
Hamilton, making his first Monza appearance in Ferrari red, and Leclerc had delighted the Ferrari fans with a surprise one-two in first practice.
Five-times Italian GP winner Hamilton’s leading time then was 1:20.117, with Leclerc 0.169 slower.
“The mood in general is very good, and we had a positive push from the tifosi (fans) all week, from Monday morning in front of the factory. This is an extra energy and a good one,” said Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur.
Hamilton has yet to stand on the podium for Ferrari and Friday was a morale boost for the team after a double blank in the Netherlands last weekend when both cars crashed.
The Briton will carry a five-place grid penalty into Sunday’s race from Zandvoort.
“It’s very special to be out on track in front of the tifosi, the passion and energy here in Monza is truly unique,” said Hamilton.
“The car felt pretty good earlier this afternoon and it was encouraging to finish FP1 on top. We made some changes between sessions that we’ll review carefully, as we’re not sure they took us in the right direction.”
VERSTAPPEN SIXTH
Red Bull’s four-times world champion Max Verstappen was sixth fastest in session two after ending opening practice fourth with Norris sixth.
Piastri sat out first practice, as Irish Formula Two contender Alex Dunne took his place, fulfilling part of the team’s young driver commitments, and ended up 16th.
“We’ve got a few tweaks to make here and there to try and make sure we go into qualifying as strong as possible, but I felt good on the second soft run so I am feeling confident,” said the Australian.
Alex Albon was seventh fastest for Williams in both sessions.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Mercedes’ George Russell completed the top 10 in the second session.
Racing Bulls’ French rookie Isack Hadjar, who took his first F1 podium in last weekend’s Dutch race, was 10th and 11th respectively.
He triggered a red flag in first practice when he went off at the Ascari Chicane with 25 minutes to go and scattered gravel across the track.
Alpine had Estonian reserve driver Paul Aron replacing Argentina’s Franco Colapinto for the first session and he finished last. Colapinto was also last when he returned to action.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris and Christian Radnedge)
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