FP1: Piastri heads McLaren one-two in Imola

On the back of his dominant victory last time out at Miami, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri set the pace in the opening practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, fractionally beating his team-mate Lando Norris. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the first one-hour session from the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

While the opening part of the first practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix ran without any trouble, the session was brought to a premature end after Gabriel Bortoleto crashed out with two minutes left on the clock.

The Kick Sauber driver ran over the kerbs before hitting the barriers at Turn 18 to bring out the red flags. The Brazilian climed out quickly of his car, but the session ended red flag conditions.

The session saw Oscar Piastri set the benchmark with a time of 1m 16.545s, going just 0.032s clear of Lando Norris in second. Williams driver Carlos Sainz finished third, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton ending the session close behind in fourth and fifth respectively, the top five separated by less than a tenth of a second.

Following a tough weekend last time out in Miami, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly took sixth, ahead of Max Verstappen, Alexander Albon, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg having rounded out the top 10.

Lance Stroll claimed P11 for Aston Martin, ahead of Charles Leclerc, who struggled for a good balance behind the wheel of his Ferrari SF-25.

Home favourite Andrea Kimi Antonelli took 13th, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson. Having displayed strong pace in the opening stages of the one-hour session, Yuki Tsunoda finished down in P16.

Returning to the F1 paddock as a racing driver, Franco Colapinto finished in P17 while the Haas pair of Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon were 18th and 20th respectively, the duo separated by Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar.