Mercedes Dominates Friday’s Italian GP Practice

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On this weekend, it looks like the big question isn’t who can catch Mercedes, but who will finish behind Mercedes.


MONZA, Italy—September 4th—As it has been all season, the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas dominated Friday practice for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. Hamilton set the fastest time of the day, a 1:20:192.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was the third quickest–in the position that Daniel Ricciardo would have occupied. But the Australian went far too wide at the Parabolica and, with that, exceeded track limits.

Taking fourth–and now in a regular upfront position–is Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly, who was dropped by the senior Red Bull team last season, but is now showing his F1 presence. For Red Bull, Max Verstappen was fifth, but he caused a red flag to be issued in the early part of the morning session. The Dutchman lost control of the rear of his car in the Ascari chicane, crashed into the barriers, and broke his front wing. Verstappen rolled back into the pits but then needed some checks and repairs before continuing.

Carlos Sainz Jr. put the second McLaren into sixth place with Dani Kvyat continuing Alpha Tauri’s success by finishing seventh. Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez were also in the top ten by finishing their Racing Point entries in eighth and tenth, respectively.

No fans were in the stands on Friday and that might have been a good thing–at least as far as the Tifosi are concerned. They would have been disappointed in Ferrari’s performance.

Both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel complained that the car was difficult to drive. Leclerc finished ninth on the day, but he is nowhere near what the car could do. Vettel nearly tagged one of the barriers and finished three places behind Leclerc in 12th.

On this weekend, it looks like the big question isn’t who can catch Mercedes, but who will finish behind Mercedes. Red Bull is the top contender, but it could be McLaren, Racing Point, or even Renault. However the situation may turn out, the odds are that the Italian GP will offer something good to see.

About Mark Gero

Mark began his addiction to Formula 1 racing watching races on the television at Watkins Glen and attending Grand Prix races in person at Long Beach, California in the 1970s and early 80s. Turning to the journalism side of motorsports in 2001, Mark started by writing Grand Prix weekend stories for San Diego, California based All-Sports under Jerry Preeper. He left one year later for E-Sports in Florida. Mark’s big break came when he wrote for the late Mike Hollander at Racing Services. Then, in 2010, he joined Racingnation for three seasons. For the remaining part of this decade, Mark continued to advance, writing articles for the Munich Eye Newspaper in Munich, Germany, and returning to the U.S. to finish his degree in Journalism and Mass Communications at Ashford University. After graduating, Mark was hired by Autoweek before moving on to the racing website, Frontstretch, until late last year. Mark currently lives in Los Angeles, California.



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