Ferrari dominated a wet first practice session at the Emilia Romagna GP, with Charles Leclerc the fastest ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz. The world champion’s time of 1:29.402 was nearly 0.9s faster than Sainz’s, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a further 0.5s back, ahead of qualifying later on Friday in Imola, which will determine the grid for the season’s first Sprint race on Saturday.
Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher finished fourth and fifth, respectively, ahead of the other Red Bull, Sergio Perez, in a practice that saw cars regularly spinning and battling to stay on track in the tricky conditions.
However, Mercedes finished 10th and 18th, respectively, with George Russell 10th and Lewis Hamilton 18th – seven seconds slower than Leclerc – as the Silver Arrows were once again unable to compete with their competitors.
The session had plenty of suspense going into it, as Formula One’s all-new 2022 cars were put through their paces for the first time in really wet conditions. However, Leclerc’s early-season dominance was further magnified as Ferrari excelled on the wet and cold track at the Italian team’s home GP.
When the session began with all of the drivers on full wet tires, it appeared that Ferrari and Red Bull would be evenly matched once more, but a switch to intermediates halfway through saw Leclerc rise to the front of the field. The Monegasque, who leads the world championship by 34 points after winning two of the first three races of the season, appeared to be battling with the conditions, spinning on multiple occasions and nearly escaping a costly collision with the wall in one case.
However, it looked that the incident had sharpened Leclerc’s attention, as he set a lap that even his teammate Sainz couldn’t match as the session neared its conclusion. While weather patterns are possible in qualifying and might change the landscape later on Friday, the 1.4-second gap between Verstappen and Leclerc will be a huge issue for Red Bull, who have historically been tightly matched with Ferrari.
