(Motorsport-Total.com) – For Ferrari fans, the race weekend in Monza started promisingly: In the first free practice for the Italian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc secured the best time (1:23.008 minutes), 0.173 seconds ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton. And that with a special livery that is meant to honor the legacy of Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher.
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The Ferrari best time at the start is not surprising, after all, the Scuderia is offering a new power unit upgrade at the home race, which comes fully into play on the high-speed track in Monza. In addition, Ferrari has also made modifications to the underbody, the rearview mirror, the rear brake vents, and the exhaust pipe.
The first pursuer of Leclerc and Hamilton was George Russell (Mercedes) with a deficit of 0.304 seconds. In fourth place followed Liam Lawson (Red Bull/+0.425), who is already stepping in for the injured regular driver Isack Hadjar for the second time. Fifth was Kimi Antonelli in the second Mercedes. Deficit: 0.636 seconds.
For Antonelli, Monza is a special weekend – in front of his home crowd. Also because he is starting the Grand Prix with a penalty: Due to a tactical engine change, he has to drop ten positions on the starting grid. For this reason, he is focusing the training program not on qualifying, but only on the race on Sunday.
Lando Norris (McLaren), winner of the last two Grands Prix in Budapest and Zandvoort, took sixth place at the start in Monza (+0.711). His teammate Oscar Piastri (+1.176) was eleventh. And Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) secured 13th place with a deficit of 1.618 seconds.
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Colton Herta’s Friday run: Probably not his day …
In addition to the known regular drivers, four Friday drivers were also allowed to run in the first free practice in Monza: Ayumu Iwasa instead of Max Verstappen at Red Bull, Luke Browning instead of Alexander Albon at Williams, Paul Aron instead of Pierre Gasly at Alpine, and Colton Herta instead of Sergio Perez at Cadillac.
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For Herta, Friday had already started badly, and it got worse: After a crash in Formula 2 training at the exit of the second Lesmo curve, he was already slow after only five laps in his Formula 1 run.
“Colton, we need to stop the car,” his race engineer radioed. Later, Cadillac initially confirmed a suspicion of a hydraulic defect. Herta finished in 22nd place, 6.914 seconds behind Leclerc’s best time. A result that has no sporting value due to the premature end.
Formula 1 Monza schedule: What’s next?
After the F1 sprint in Zandvoort, Monza is again a classic Grand Prix weekend in the traditional format. This means that on Friday afternoon there is no sprint qualifying, but another free practice session on the program. The session starts at 4 p.m. CEST.
Qualifying for the Grand Prix takes place on Saturday from 4:00 p.m., and the race start on Sunday is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. The race weekend will be broadcast on TV on Sky (Germany), ServusTV (Austria), and SRF (Switzerland) (Here is the complete TV overview for Formula 1 in Monza!).
Fans can follow the usual Formula 1 live streams on Saturday and Sunday evening on the YouTube channel of Formel1.de. With a summary of the events and analyses far beyond the end of the TV broadcasts. Host Kevin Scheuren presents the streams again with the regular team including editor-in-chief Christian Nimmervoll as expert.
The provisional start time of the live streams on Saturday and Sunday is set for 9:00 p.m. CEST. (Here is the Formula 1 calendar 2026!)
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