Report: 111 laps completed by Carlos, Alex and Luke on first day in Monza
Here’s what happened across both practice sessions on Friday of the Italian Grand Prix
Published
04 SEP 2026
Est. reading time
3 min
Mileage was the priority as Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon and Luke Browning shared running duties across two sessions at the Temple of Speed, with 111 laps banked between the trio on a sunny Friday in Monza.
Carlos and Luke got the opening running duties, with Luke making his second FP1 outing of the year. The session was disrupted early when Colton Herta stopped on track, first bringing out a Virtual Safety Car and then a red flag when the Cadillac couldn't be moved by hand.
Luke had a scrappy start to proceedings, losing an early lap time for cutting the first chicane, then having to take evasive action after finding traffic in the form of Lewis Hamilton at Turn 1.
Once the session settled down, both drivers worked through the tyre range. Carlos ended the hour in P16 after a best of 1:24.827. Luke steadily found time across his stints, banking a best of 1:24.740 on the soft tyre to end the session in P15.
Alex was back in the car for FP2, getting up to speed after watching the opening session from the garage. Both cars ran mediums to start, with Carlos setting the early pace before Alex found his rhythm.
During the qualifying simulations, Alex recorded a 1:23.853 whilst Carlos logged a 1:23.900 which would see us P16 and P17 on the timing tower before the entire field switched to gathering long run data.
Alex ended the session with 31 laps on the board, while Carlos completed 30 laps.
Luke Browning
“It was great to be back out in FP1 for the second time this season. I've got some fond memories of this circuit from F2 - winning the feature race and taking pole position here. Today's main job was giving the team feedback and testing some setup options for Alex, which went well and should put him and the team in a good place for the rest of the weekend. As always, I'm very grateful to the team for the opportunity to get back out there in the FW48."
Alex Albon
“A short day for me, but it was an okay Friday in the end. We don't have the pace yet, but the car feels like we're moving in a more positive direction. Luke did a good job in FP1 to test some items around the floor, so the car feels like it is in a decent place. I don't think there will be many changes overnight. Given my grid penalty for Sunday, our focus shifts tomorrow to long runs to get ready for hopefully an interesting race."
Carlos Sainz
"The car felt okay today, despite its limitations. We used both sessions to do a number of interesting tests to help with setup over the weekend. All three tyre compounds worked well for us, with minor difference between them. We'll continue refining our setup and reviewing the data ahead of qualifying tomorrow."
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