Imola – At one point there were three Ferrari drivers in the top three places: Carlos Sainz best time, immediately behind his teammate Charles Leclerc and just over two tenths Lewis Hamilton (also the protagonist of an outing to mineral waters), still on Mercedes but already adopted by a large part of the Italian public. Not bad for the first free practice session of the new World Championship which begins here in Imola: new in the hopes of Ferrari, who in the first six races were among the few teams not to install practically any updates on the single-seater. «We preferred not to do it either in Shanghai or in Miami – explained team principal Frederic Vasseur yesterday – because there was only one free practice session before the Sprint race». Here, however, there are three hours to test all the new pieces and the first one went reasonably well. Leclerc, who ran with a new engine (already his third of the season), took home the best time. The second power unit, mounted in Miami, had shown some problems at the end of the race and the team did not want to risk anything in the home GP.
Charles changes another engine
“The updates won’t change our lives”, Carlos Sainz had put his hands out before getting into the car, showing up at the circuit with a mustache and hair slicked back exactly like his physiotherapist Pierluigi Della Bona. The Spaniard is right, you never progress by half a second, but as Vasseur recalled “even a tenth can make a difference”. The evolved SF-24 – completely revised in the sides, in the rear bodywork and in the bottom, as well as in the wings – satisfied the pilots from the first kilometers, traveled without opening the drs. Leclerc achieved his best performance on the third lap on soft tyres, following a decent progression.
Max’s mistakes, Hamilton’s greeting
And the opponents? Mercedes’ progress is encouraging, having made some further adjustments here in the hope of finding the right path again sooner or later. If Hamilton, who also greeted the stands, had to settle for seventh place, George Russell managed to climb to just a tenth from the top. In difficulty, relative for goodness sake, Max Verstappen. «We need to understand where we are losing», complained the world champion a few minutes from the end, nervous at the impossibility of finding a clean lap. In the last two attempts he went off the track as many times, a sign that he was not at all comfortable on the RB20: he finished in fifth place, also behind his teammate, Sergio Perez. Fifteenth was Oliver Bearman, an 18-year-old English talent from the Driver Academy who replaced Sainz in Jeddah and finished 7th: he had the Haas at his disposal in free practice, he hopes to have it for the entire season in 2025.
#Imola #Leclerc #fastest #free #practice #Verstappen
