Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in FP1 for Italian GP
Lewis Hamilton was the fastest during first free practice of Italian Grand Prix in Monza, as he beats Nico Rosberg by almost half of a second.
As it was expected, Mercedes was dominant from the start of the session, with Hamilton on top with 1:25.653 and Rosberg on second, almost a second behind his teammate, but not too much ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Free practice was then stopped after Carlos Sainz had a spin at Parabolica and stayed stuck in the gravel, but luckily his car wasn’t seriously damaged.
Almost all cars stayed in the garages for a while after the red flag, so nothing interesting or important happened. Before going into the last 30 minutes, Hamilton was still on top with 1:25.122, Rosberg reduced a gap to just 0. 011s, while Vettel remained third, but 1.5s slower than the reigning champion.
Both Force India cars looked well during first free practice, so Nico Hulkenberg soon moved up to third wth 1:26.612, while Sergio Perez was fifth. In a meantime, Hamilton set new fastest lap 1:24.670 to go 0.463s clear of Rosberg.
In the last 15 minutes we saw Vettel claming back third place, but former champion also spun at the first chicane causing yellow flags for short time. Hamilton retained first place ahead of Rosberg who can fight back at second free practice later in the afternoon.
