McLaren beats a tight field with outsider confirming shock pace

Pierre Gasly took the top of the timesheets ahead of Lewis Hamilton despite the Frenchman wielding a less quick tyre. Behind them Liam Lawson took P3.

Fernando Alonso had a run-in with Charles Leclerc going into Turn 15 and quickly the top contenders took over the top of the order with Andrea Kimi Antonelli leading Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, George Russell and Oscar Piastri. Leclerc slotted in behind Gasly. Only momentarily though, as Esteban Ocon came in between the Alpine and the lead Ferrari.

Franco Colapinto’s first lap back in F1 put him P12, as Norris and Russell took P1 and P2. Alonso then put his AMR25 in P3 ahead of Antonelli. Gasly jumped to P6 ahead of Lawson and Tsunoda went up to P8.

Leclerc, who’d been feeling unwell had a couple of off’s at Turns 13 and 15, did not seem able to get the upper-hand on teammate Hamilton and Norris set a 1:17.1, 4 tenths quicker than Russell, his closest pursuer. At least until Gabriel Bortoleto shot up to P2 on the medium tyre.

Russell then put in a blistering lap half a second faster than Norris’, as Antonelli also pipped the McLaren driver to take P3 behind Gasly and ahead of Sainz.

Verstappen spent quite a few minutes in the garage working on the setup of his RB21, and when he came out, the times came quickly for him as he was able to shoot up to P3 behind Sainz who put his Williams in P2 behind Russell’s Mercedes.

Piastri, on new soft tyres was only able to surpass Russell by 0.054s, as the Briton reported his teammate was suffering from extreme bottoming and plank wear coming out of Turn 4 and going into Turn 5.

Norris took to the track with new softs as well, like his teammate, but after dropping significant amounts of time in the first sector and only marginally improving in the second gave up the lap as he made his run up the main straight.

Ferrari’s first home race of the season was not going to well with Leclerc in P9 and Hamilton down in P17. For Sauber, though, it was proving to be their most solid FP1 of 2025 so far with Bortoleto and teammate Nico Hulkenberg running in P6 and P7.

After complaining about his SF-25’s braking capabilities, Hamilton went up to P3, shortly before Norris demoted him to P4 with the McLaren driver placing his MCL39 in P2 behind his teammate’s.

Hamilton had set the overall record of the session for Sector 1, yet the Brirton forewent his lap in the middle part of the track as his teammate Leclerc also aborted his push lap and bolted to the pits

Sainz confirmed the pace in his Williams as he took P3 ahead of Russell only pipped by the almighty McLarens by a mere 0.052s.

A late crash by Bortoleto brought the session to a premature end.