Max Verstappen took up his perennial place at the head of the timesheet in first practice for the Italian GP at high-speed Monza - but Ferrari finished right behind to begin the biggest weekend of their year in encouraging fashion.
Red Bull's Verstappen set the pace on 1:22.657 but his advantage was only 0.046 seconds from Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, with Sergio Perez a further tenth back in third.Verstappen is chasing a record 10th race win in succession on Sunday.Charles Leclerc was fourth in the second Ferrari, ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.
While the headline change affects qualifying - where teams have to run set compounds in each knockout segment of the hour-long session - it also sees fewer tyres brought to the weekend in total, inevitably meaning that teams run fewer sets in practice.The top five on the timesheet all ran the hardest compound in the opening hour on track.More to follow...Sky Sports F1's live Italian GP scheduleFriday 1 September2pm: F3 Qualifying2.45pm: F2 Qualifying3.40pm: Italian GP Practice Two 5.
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