Lando Norris put his engine blow-up in the Netherlands to one side to lead practice for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Norris’ hopes of a maiden world championship were dealt a significant blow when mechanical gremlins struck in Zandvoort. He heads into this weekend’s 15th round of 24 trailing McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri by 34 points.
However, Norris delivered the best time of the day at Monza’s sun-soaked Temple of Speed with Piastri – fresh from winning his seventh race of the season last time out – only fourth.
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Charles Leclerc took second place for Ferrari one place ahead of the impressive Carlos Sainz in his Williams. Lewis Hamilton, on his debut for Ferrari in Monza, ended the day in fifth – two tenths behind – after he had set the early pace in opening practice.
Norris attempted to put a brave face on his retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix when he conducted his media duties to preview this weekend’s event on Thursday.
But the British driver was clearly still feeling the pain of a DNF which puts him firmly on the backfoot in his bid to land a maiden world crown.
Yet, Norris will draw confidence from his form on Friday, and a strong showing from both Ferrari and Williams, as he bids to wrest the championship momentum back from team-mate Piastri.
Hamilton described his opening campaign with Ferrari as an “emotional rollercoaster”. He will serve a five-place grid drop here following a yellow-flag infringement at the previous round – a race which ended prematurely for the seven-time world champion after he put his Ferrari in the wall.
At the final round before the summer break in Hungary, Hamilton described himself as “useless”, and even urged his team to replace him after he qualified 12th and finished in the same position.
But Hamilton, who has been out-qualified by team-mate Leclerc 11 times since he made the switch from Mercedes to the Italian giants and finished ahead of the Monegasque on just two occasions, enjoyed one of his stronger Fridays of the year.
Although he was fifth in the second running of the day, Hamilton was within two tenths of Norris’ pace-setting McLaren.
Hamilton said: “It was very special to be out on track in front of the tifosi, the passion and energy here in Monza is truly unique.
“The car felt pretty good earlier this afternoon and it was encouraging to finish FP1 on top. We made some changes between sessions that we’ll review carefully, as we’re not sure they took us in the right direction, but we have time to adjust ahead of tomorrow.
“I’m confident the team can make good progress overnight and we’ll be working towards a good qualifying tomorrow.”
Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes, the Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli, is struggling for form. He has finished in the points just twice in his last nine appearances and his torrid run took another twist on home turf when he lost control through the second Lesmo and beached his Mercedes in the gravel with just 10 minutes of the second session gone.
It marked a poor day for Mercedes after George Russell broke down with an engine failure in the first running and could manage only 10th, albeit just four tenths off the pace, in the final session.
PA
