2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix FP1 Report & Highlights: Charles Leclerc leads Carlos Sainz in a sunken training session ahead of qualifying

Championship leader Charles Leclerc beat Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz at the fastest time in wet opening practice for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

Monaco clocked 1min 29.402secs to finish 0.877secs behind Sainz, as Ferrari led the session – while Max Verstappen was 1.465secs ahead of the lead in third.

because it’s the first F1 racing At the weekend of the year, this was the only practice session before qualifying later on Friday, meaning the drivers were eager to get out on track to collect data.

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Conditions were very challenging early on, with Ferrari’s Leclerc turning twice on fully wet tyres. Then he circled twice more when the course improved enough for intermediates.

The constant rain gave the Formula 1 drivers a chance to test the 2022 mechanism in wet conditions, with Lando Norris spinning and briefly taking out the red flag, while Valtteri Bottas swirled his Alfa Romeo and beached his car on the final lap.

Haas excelled in challenging conditions as Kevin Magnussen scored an impressive fourth, albeit three seconds off the lead, as his teammate Mick Schumacher completed the top five.

Sergio Perez finished sixth with Fernando Alonso, who runs the new floor in the Alps this weekend, and Sebastian Vettel eighth as an Aston Martin fan.

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Pioneering AlphaTauri, who this weekend features a heavily revised floor, was Yuki Tsunoda, in ninth with Mercedes’ George Russell completing the top ten.

Bottas finished 11th for Alfa Romeo, ahead of Alfa Torri’s Pierre Gasly, with Alpine driver Esteban Ocon – who made an engine change before the session – 12th.

Norris recovered from the pits after getting into the gravel and finishing the day 14 times faster, 10 times ahead of his McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Lance Stroll finished 16th, while Alex Albon was seven seconds off the lead in the leader Williams. Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton left it too late to complete a lap on the Intermediates and complained of tire warm-up struggles en route to 18th.

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Zhou Guanyu finished 19th for Alfa Romeo with Nicholas Latifi – who went off the track early in the session – and completed the Williams classification, 10.2s off the lead.

Qualification for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix will take place at 1700 local time on Friday.

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