Gravel on trackpublished at 13:08 BST 5 September

13:08 BST 5 September

Out come the old school brooms and the marshals begin to sweep away the offending bits of gravel. Isack Hadjar was the man to cause the majority of the mess, running wide at the Ascari chicane, before returning to the pits to see if the floor of his Racing Bulls needs some TLC.

Red flagpublished at 13:06 BST 5 September

13:06 BST 5 September

There's a red flag flashing up and it looks like it's for a load of gravel down at Ascari.

"No grip. I just slide a lot."

Charles Leclerc has aborted his hot lap near the Lesmos, while Max Verstappen has completed his run on the softs with a 1:20.692 to go quickest. Not that the Dutchman felt at ease on his tyres...

Jennie Gow
F1 pit-lane reporter at Monza

Image source, Getty Images

I love looking at these skinny rear wings, they're a thing of beauty.

I know the DRS gets affected by it but I don't care, they look great.

Alex Dunne is also a soft runner but the 19-year-old Irishman doesn't move up too far up the order after his first push lap, slotting in to 15th, which now turns to 16th place, on the timesheets.

Image source, Getty Images

Max Verstappen has bolted on the soft tyre over at Red Bull and is joined by the likes of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.

"Williams dropped something in the pitbox there. I almost hit it. I couldn't turn into our box properly."

Gabriel Bortoleto has spotted some loose debris from the Williams team as he entered his Sauber pit box. The Brazilian is 12th on the timesheets, 10 laps in to a hard tyre stint.

At the top of the timesheets, Carlos Sainz is running second behind Max Verstappen, the Spaniard also using the hards early on. In third place is Charles Leclerc, who took the win here last year, to the delight of the whole of Italy, on a one-stop strategy.

Oh, hello, Paul Aaron. The rookie driver is in for Franco Colapinto over at Alpine but he's just taken a trip across the gravel at the second chicane in front of the Italian fans. A quick "sorry" to the team and the 21-year-old is back on his way.

Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar, meanwhile, has been clocked by race control for not taking to the escape road properly following a nervy moment.

Jennie Gow
F1 pit-lane reporter at Monza

I've just seen Liam Lawson come into the pit lane. They've seen how much gravel he's got on the board, cleaned him up and got him back out.

Pierre Gasly in the Alpine is not a happy bunny when it comes to Carlos Sainz's positioning on track. "That's not fair," says the Frenchman, who had a challenging race in the Netherlands and finished P17.

Over at Red Bull, Max Verstappen has found more pace in the car and has bettered Alex Albon's previous quick time by over three tenths, the Dutchman's time clocked on the medium compound.

Max Verstappen produced one of the best overtakes at Zandvoort when he slipped past Lando Norris (and almost went off track) at the start of his home race to take second place. While Norris fought back to snatch the position back, the Briton's misfortune meant the four-time world champion was runner-up in front of his adoring Orange Army.

Verstappen just briefly went to the top of the timesheets on the mediums, but he told his pit wall his "tyres are starting to slide a bit more", before Alex Albon went quickest once again on the hards for Williams.

Top time for Albon as it stands is a 1:21.073.

Ferrari are running this special livery in Monza this weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of three-time world champion Niki Lauda's first F1 title success, claimed on Italian soil in Monza with a third-place finish in the Ferrari 312T, in 1975.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are also wearing full blue team kit for the Italian Grand Prix, another nod to the Scuderia's 1970s past.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Jennie Gow
F1 pit-lane reporter at Monza

Image source, Getty Images

Looking at the Ferraris, they're really smart this weekend. They've done the car up in tribute to Niki Lauda, who was someone Lewis Hamilton knew very well.

There's a white rear end on the Ferrari to pay tribute to him.

Oscar Piastri is watching on for first practice, so Lando Norris is the most experienced driver out there for McLaren. The Briton jumps above the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton on his early medium tyre stint, but his time of 1:21.513 is beaten by the Williams of Alex Albon on the hard compound. The gap between the two drivers is just 0.034 seconds.

Alice Powell
British racing driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Lando Norris needs to outscore Oscar Piastri, of course, but there are plenty of things that could go wrong.

We never expect a mechanical failure and that happened to Lando [for example].

That could happen to Oscar, there could be an incident. If you chuck Max Verstappen in there, he knows they need to be careful. He will go for a gap and get stuck in, he won't care if it affects the championship.

Lando Norris will be hoping to bounce back with a vengence after his disappointment at the Dutch Grand Prix. Any early nerves need to be cleared out in these practice sessions, so as he reaches the first chicane at the start of the lap, he goes straight on instead of coming to any harm. Quite a few drivers actually are twitching at various points on the Monza circuit.

A sight to make the tifosi happy: Lewis Hamilton is quickest on the mediums with a time of 1:22.235.

Image source, PA Media

Andy Gray
BBC Sport NI

Image source, Getty Images

After getting his first-day nerves out of the way in Austria, Alex Dunne feels more at home every time he drives a Formula 1 car and admitted he "set the bar pretty high" on his debut on a Grand Prix weekend.

Speaking to him ahead of Monza, he said it "wasn't the time to try and be a hero" today but recognised it was another chance to show what he can do for the championship leaders as he chases a future F1 seat.

By participating in first practice in Austria, he became the first driver from Ireland to drive on a Formula 1 weekend in 22 years.

Back home, the reaction to his F1 appearance in Austria has made him one of the biggest sport stars on the island, and he was mobbed for autographs and selfies at a recent appearance at Mondello Park.

Just like his racing career, he's taken it all in his stride.

There was a virtual safety car test just as the lights went green for first practice, but now that's cleared, we can go out on track properly. Alex Dunne is in for championship leader Oscar Piastri for this session in the McLaren.

Dunne is on the radio straight out, highlighting to his team he need the "headrest pads on if possible" when he returns to the pits.