05/09/2025 18:02
Lando Norris took the first restorative step toward eating into
McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri's F1 drivers' championship lead. A
rare technical failure with seven laps remaining of Sunday's Dutch
Grand Prix pitched Norris into a 34-point deficit to Piastri who
went on to take the chequered flag and put him in pole position to
becoming champion. In need of a response, Norris at least set the
leading time in Friday practice for this weekend's Italian Grand
Prix at Monza, posting a best lap of 1:19.878s. Behind him,
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Williams' Carlos Sainz, the
Monêgasque's former Scuderia team-mate, both finished within a
tenth of Norris, with Piastri only fourth quickest, and under
investigation with the stewards for failing to follow race director
Rui Marques' instructions. For Kimi Antonelli, just when he needed
a clean weekend after what unfolded in Zandvoort five days ago, the
19-year-old could not have asked to have suffered a worse moment.
One year on from crashing out minutes into first practice a year
ago ahead of being confirmed as a Mercedes driver the day after,
Antonelli found himself in the gravel again nine minutes into FP2.
Approaching the second Lesmo, Antonelli lost the rear end of his
W16, sending him into the gravel from which he was unable to
escape, sparking a red flag and a seven-minute delay. Norris holds
sway At that early stage, Norris held a two-tenths of a second
advantage over Piastri with a lap of 1:21.012s, on medium tyres and
almost a second off the pace set by Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari
in FP1. Once running resumed, naturally it was a time that did not
live long at the top of the timesheet. Around a track expected to
favour Williams this weekend, Sainz moved half-a-second clear on
the yellow-striped Pirellis. Approaching the midway point, and in
switching to soft rubber, Norris became the first driver in
practice to dip below 80 seconds, clocking a 1:19.878s. It was a
time that could not be bettered. After topping FP1, albeit with the
suggestion Ferrari had turned up its engines for headline times,
Hamilton then set the second fastest lap at that stage, two-tenths
behind Norris. As for Leclerc, he complained of "no grip, like none
at all" after his first flying lap that left him half-a-second
behind Norris. On a follow-up flier after being off the pace on his
first, Sainz posted a time just 0.096s adrift of Norris before
Verstappen thrust himself into the mix, after a mistake on his
first run, positioning himself just seven-thousandths behind
Hamilton in fourth. After finding himself adrift of Norris on his
initial outing, Piastri's follow-up attempt saw him set a lap of
1:20.059s for third before Leclerc finally found some grip to
finish 0.083s behind the Briton. In the long-run laps that
followed, Leclerc escaped a major incident through Ascari, enduring
a left-front lock-up on the approach, forcing him across the gravel
before managing to make his way back on track. Moments later,
Hamilton almost slid off at the second Lesmo, the scene of many a
driver enduring a dip into the gravel with the left-hand side of
the car. Come the flag, behind fourth-quickest Piastri were
Hamilton and Verstappen ahead of Williams' Alex Albon and Nico
Hulkenberg in his Sauber, followed by Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda, with
George Russell completing the top 10 in his Mercedes, four-tenths
down. Alpine's Franco Colapinto was slowest, and on soft rubber,
finishing two-tenths behind Antonelli on hards, and who only
managed four laps.
