Lewis Hamilton set the pace as Formula 1 hit the track at Imola for the first time in 14 years on Saturday.
Under the two-day format being used at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the 90-minute session was the only chance for teams and drivers to acquaint themselves with the Italian circuit ahead of qualifying.
Most would approach practice in the same way though by conducting an initial run to learn the track and check the balance before doing some set up work on the different tyres.
They would split a little more after that though with some going straight into the low fuel runs before a long run, much like a typical FP2 on a Friday, while others did the reverse.
Mercedes and Red Bull were among those to do their qualifying runs early, and there was little to choose the usual top three.
Max Verstappen had set the pace for a while, but Hamilton would improve on his final flying lap to go fastest with a 1m14.726, three-tenths clear of the Dutchman and half a second ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas.
AlphaTauri had been the only team to test at Imola ahead of this weekend, doing so back in June, and Pierre Gasly perhaps benefitted from that extra experience to claim fourth.
Charles Leclerc moved up to fifth late on, putting himself ahead of the two Renaults as Daniel Ricciardo led Esteban Ocon.
Daniil Kvyat backed up AlphaTauri’s pace in eighth, leaving Alex Albon as the slowest Red Bull driver in ninth, with the Thai driver complaining of a lack of grip throughout.
Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10 just ahead of teammate Sergio Perez in 11th. While Sebastian Vettel jumped up from 20th to 12th in the final minutes, having focused on longer runs beforehand.
Romain Grosjean was 13th in the Haas, with the two McLaren’s of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris lower than expected in 14th and 16th.
In between, was the newly re-signed Antonio Giovinazzi in 15th, a tenth clear of Kimi Raikkonen in 17th, who was also confirmed for another year at Alfa Romeo on Friday.
At the back, George Russell pipped Kevin Magnussen into 18th and Nicholas Latifi rounded out the grid in the second Williams.
Given the narrow, twisty nature of Imola, traffic was an issue, but there were only a few off-track excursions as drivers tested the limits of the historic layout.
That being said, plenty of lap times would be deleted for track limits at Piratella and the exit of Variante Alta, something that looks set to be a theme in qualifying.
An interesting trip into the unknown with some equally interesting results as F1’s two-day format looked to make a successful start, but at the front it’s still set to be business as usual among the top three.
Full result from practice can be seen below:
