--- title: "Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix Friday Practice: Ferrari Leads, Perez Shines, Ericsson Flies" description: "The weekend's maiden practice session offered little to no value to most teams and drivers." date: "2018-08-31" modified: "2018-08-31" authors: - name: "James Gilboy" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/james-gilboy" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/23301/formula-1-italian-grand-prix-friday-practice-ferrari-leads-perez-shines-ericsson-flies" categories: - "News" tags: - "Ferrari" - "Formula 1" - "Italian Grand Prix" - "Lewis Hamilton" - "Mercedes-AMG" - "racing" - "Racing News" - "Sebastian Vettel" --- # Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix Friday Practice: Ferrari Leads, Perez Shines, Ericsson Flies ![]() *\www.thedrive.com* Rain may have fallen on the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza during the first practice session for this year's Italian Grand Prix, but it didn't dampen the spirits of the rambunctious Tifosi in attendance. Free Practice One, the only on-track session forecasted to be rainy this weekend—was led by Force India's Sergio Perez by more than a half second over his closest rival in the downpour, Kimi Räikkönen. As rain setup knowledge has minimal value during a race weekend expected to be dry, few cars ran more than a handful of laps. Even McLaren junior Lando Norris (who borrowed Stoffel Vandoorne's car) enjoyed relatively little of the session, with his running limited to nine laps. Scarcely two minutes and one lap into the Free Practice Two, Marcus Ericsson endured a colossal crash at the end of the pit straight, which saw his car unexpectedly spearing left into the wall under braking before tumbling end over end. https://youtube.com/embed/gF4FGyliW9s Ericsson extricated himself from the car and was taken to the medical center while the session red-flagged, although drivers weren't done having off-track sojourns for the day. Forty minutes after practice resumed, Sebastian Vettel made a detour of his own, spinning from the Parabolica across the gravel and almost into the tire wall. He was able to recover his Ferrari under its own power. A full list of each driver's best practice time can be found below. 1. Sebastian Vettel/Ferrari - 1:21.105, -16.762 from FP1 2. Kimi Räukkönen/Ferrari - 1:21.375, -13.175 from FP1 3. Lewis Hamilton/Mercedes - 1:21.392, -15.154 from FP1 4. Valtteri Bottas/Mercedes - 1:21.803, -14.435 from FP1 5. Max Verstappen/Red Bull - 1:22.154, -13.511 from FP1 6. Daniel Ricciardo/Red Bull - 1:22.296, -12.911 from FP1 7. Esteban Ocon/Force India - 1:22.930, -11.663 from FP1 8. Sergio Perez/Force India - 1:22.942, -11.058 from FP1 9. Charles Leclerc/Alfa Romeo Sauber - 1:22.965, -13.683 from FP1 10. Nico Hülkenberg/Renault - 1:23.063, -13.044 from FP1 11. Romain Grosjean/Haas - 1:23.077, -14.606 from FP1 12. Carlos Sainz Jr./Renault - 1:23.193, -12.802 from FP1 13. Kevin Magnussen/Haas - 1:23.233, -13.833 from FP1 14. Pierre Gasly/Toro Rosso-Honda - 1:23.402, -12.036 from FP1 15. Sergey Sirotkin/Williams - 1:23.514, -14.415 from FP1 16. Brendon Hartley/Toro Rosso-Honda - 1:23.531, -11.493 from FP1 17. Lance Stroll/Williams - 1:23.566, -14.687 from FP1 18. Fernando Alonso/McLaren - 1:23.741, -13.685 from FP1 19. Stoffel Vandoorne/McLaren - 1:24.084 (No FP1 Time) 20. Marcus Ericsson/Alfa Romeo Sauber - 1:37.790 (No FP2 Time) 21. Lando Norris/McLaren - 1:38.282 (No FP2 Time) ## Author James is a former staff writer for The Drive. He has changed the conversation around electrification, debunked misinformation online, and become a prominent hunter of what he calls "automotive cryptids." ### Author social links [Instagram]()