Ferrari, Williams and Red Bull were neck and neck with McLaren in Monza practice on Friday; Lewis Hamilton remains 'upbeat' despite five-place grid penalty; watch final practice at 11.30am on Saturday and qualifying at 3pm, live on Sky Sports F1.
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Highlights from Friday practice at the Italian Grand Prix
Lando Norris has said McLaren's Monza rivals are “too close in my opinion” and F1 2025's dominant force looks set to face tougher opposition from several teams, including home favourites Ferrari, at this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.
Norris set the fastest time in the second practice session at the Monza circuit on Friday, but McLaren's advantage over the rest was nowhere near as significant as it had been last week at Zandvoort.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, whose team-mate Lewis Hamilton won first practice to give the team a one-two, and Carlos Sainz in an impressively fast Williams finished within a tenth of a second of Norris' pace.
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Championship leader Oscar Piastri finished fourth in the other McLaren, with Hamilton and Max Verstappen in the Red Bull also 0.2 seconds behind the leader.
The top ten were separated by just four-tenths of a second, raising expectations of a fierce battle for pole position in qualifying on Saturday, which starts at 3pm and will be shown live on Sky Sports F1.
Norris, who has consistently played down McLaren's significant advantage this season, admitted on Friday: “Normally we have a one-second advantage over everyone at this point but it's a bit less now, I think.”
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Despite winning second practice at Monza, McLaren's Lando Norris admits the rest of the field is “too close for my liking”.
He then added: “It's the complete opposite of the downforce levels at Zandvoort.”
In Zandvoort we were easily the fastest, which was just amazing, and here it's the opposite. It's not surprising, we probably expected it, but I definitely think we're not performing at the same level in low downforce conditions as we are in high downforce conditions.
“Our competitors are catching up, it seems a little bit closer, and that makes life a little bit more difficult for us. But I think we are still going at a reasonable pace, we need to improve a few things and we will be a little bit better.”
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Lando Norris says if he loses the championship due to points lost at the Dutch Grand Prix after retiring, he will move on and try to achieve more next season.
Piastri, who leads Norris by 34 points in the standings after the Briton's retirement last Sunday, admitted he was surprised by how close the field was.
“Yeah, a bit,” he said. “I think there was a bit of a surprise with who was in the line-up as well. Williams looked strong in both sessions so we'll see if they can maintain their form tomorrow but I think it's going to be a busy weekend.”
McLaren have won all but three of the first 15 grands prix this season, including the last five in a row, but were beaten by Leclerc in Ferrari's tactical triumph at Monza last season.
Penalised Hamilton still 'optimistic' as Leclerc sees pole chance
As is often the case on their home circuit, Ferrari are at the forefront, aiming for back-to-back wins at Monza for their loyal fans and a maiden Grand Prix success in 2025.
The SF-25 immediately proved quick in the challenging low-downforce conditions at Monza and Hamilton marked his Italian Grand Prix debut for his home team by beating Leclerc to first place in the first practice timesheets.
The Briton, who had a five-place grid penalty on Saturday, dropped to fifth in the afternoon but feels he knows where he went wrong with his set-up between sessions.
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Sky Sports' Karun Chandhok explains on Skypad why Lewis Hamilton will be handed a five-place grid penalty for the previous race at Zandvoort on his first weekend at Monza as a Ferrari driver.
“The first run went well, we made some changes in the second run and the car was a bit worse. It's good that we can get back to the old regime,” Hamilton said before the final practice session on Saturday morning.
“Today was a lot of positive for us and we will do some work tonight. Hopefully we can do better tomorrow.”
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After practice for the Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton said driving for Ferrari at Monza was “everything I dreamed of and more”.
Leclerc described his car as “tricky but fast” after two off-track runs in second practice.
But asked if he thought he could challenge for pole, Leclerc replied: “At the moment I think it's possible, but I don't know how much effort Red Bull and McLaren have already put in.”
“I think they have more in the bag than we do. We still need to improve the car, but if we do that, I think there is a chance.”
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Sky Sports' Karun Chandhok explains on Skypad why Charles Leclerc was not penalised for overtaking under a red flag in first practice for the Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton's penalty for breaking yellow flag rules at Zandvoort already rules him out of pole position and means he will start no higher than sixth in Sunday's race.
However, the five-time Monza winner still sees reasons for optimism for his race on Sunday despite the apparent closeness of the contenders.
“It will be difficult to overtake because we are all very close in the top 15,” Hamilton added.
“I'm optimistic, I still feel like I can potentially move forward and I was much happier with the car today, so hopefully that will be the case tomorrow.”
“Everything I ever dreamed of and more”
Lewis Hamilton on his first experience as a Ferrari driver at Monza :
“It's just incredible! It's an amazing feeling when you drive out of the garage. The whole feeling when I'm all blue. (The colour of Ferrari's shirts this weekend). I joined the team to be in red!
“While in the garage, we experienced the meeting with the Tifosi in Milan on Thursday…
“And then to come here and drive out of the garage in a red car is everything I ever dreamed of and more.”
Williams 'got down to business quickly', Verstappen makes 'decent' start
Williams' car also enjoyed the high-speed, low-downforce conditions, with Alex Albon and especially Carlos Sainz running at the front of the timesheets all day.
Sainz finished third in both sessions, while Albon twice set the seventh fastest time.
“To be honest, in terms of lap times and performance, it's a promising day,” admitted Sainz, who has now finished in the top five at Monza for five consecutive times.
We seemed to hit the ground running this morning with the right set-up and balance, which seemed to give us decent lap times. Confidence-wise, it's not great: Turns 11 and 7 were a bit of a struggle for me to balance the car and being on track.
“The car feels very different here to the Ferrari. It has very good characteristics and very difficult ones, but every lap I try to learn to adapt to it.
Pictured: Carlos Sainz finished in the top three after both Friday practice sessions.
But the pace is promising and now I need to make sure I feel more comfortable on the first lap on the soft tyres and also a little bit in some corners where I think I'm still a little bit lacking. But overall, taking these things into account, the pace is good.
Sixth-fastest Verstappen was also encouraged by his start at Red Bull, a year after qualifying in which he missed pole position by 0.7 seconds and produced one of the team's worst results in 2024.
“It was a very difficult weekend for us last year and we looked much more competitive and we were happier with the car,” Verstappen said.
“The sessions were quite difficult as the riders went off track and dumped a lot of gravel on the track.
“Overall, it was a pretty decent Friday for us.”
Sky Sports F1 Italian Grand Prix Schedule
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Remember the most dramatic moments of the Italian Grand Prix.
Saturday 6th September
8:10am: Formula 3 Sprint
11:15: Italian Grand Prix third practice (session starts at 11:30)
13:10: Formula 2 Sprint
14:15: Preparation for the Italian Grand Prix qualifying
15:00: ITALIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING*
17:00: Ted's Qualification Notebook
Sunday, September 7th
7:10am: Formula 3 main race
8:40am: Formula 2 main race
10.40: Race for the Porsche Super Cup.
12:30: Sunday Grand Prix: Preparation for the Italian Grand Prix
14:00: ITALIAN GRAND PRIX*
16:00: Checkered flag: Italian Grand Prix reaction
17:00: Ted's Diary
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
The European Formula 1 season concludes with the Italian Grand Prix – watch the whole weekend at Monza live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday. Watch Sky Sports now – no contract, cancel anytime.
Sourse: skysports.com
