Ferrari got a close duel with the world championship team McLaren at the start of the race weekend in Monza.
In free training at the great price of Italy, Lando Norris in the McLaren made the fastest round of Friday (1: 19.878 minutes), but Charles Leclerc was only 83 thousands of lessons slower in his Ferrari.
WM leader Oscar Piatri (McLaren) was fourth, Lewis Hamilton was only eleven thousands behind the Australian before his first Monza Grand Prix for Ferrari. Williams pilot Carlos Sainz was third between the two teams.
At the home race Ferraris, Scuderia is strongly in focus, although the team is no longer seriously fighting for a title this season. Hamilton in particular has not yet fulfilled the high expectations, but a strong result in Monza could compensate for many things.
On Friday, world champion Max Verstappen was sixth in Red Bull, Sauber-Pilot Nico Hülkenberg came into the weekend as a eight.
Qualifying on Saturday live on RTL+
The meaningfulness of the first two sessions is still limited, but this is noticeable: the field is close together at the beginning. There was less than a second between rank 1 and 17th place.
A close fight for the best starting places in qualifying on Saturday (from 3:30 p.m. on RTL+*) had already predicted Hamilton that it was particularly complicated for him: the Englishman received a punishment last weekend in Zandvoort, which he served in Monza, he has to go back by five places in the starting line -up.
The World Cup fight is now a duel between the two McLaren pilots. According to Norris, Piatri has 34 points ahead in the Netherlands.