Round 16 of the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with Friday practice at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza as teams prepared for Sunday's 53-lap Italian Grand Prix.

Opening practice began with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman starting off with a baseline stint on Pirelli's P Zero Yellow medium rubber before sampling the Red soft tires. A red flag stop for gravel on track at Turn 8 paused proceedings, both drivers eventually returning to action on the same tires. Ocon posted a fastest lap of 1:21.642 for P17, as team mate Bearman recorded a 1:22.058 for P19. High-fuel running on used mediums completed FP1.

Drivers enjoyed a more competitive showing in FP2 (held 17:00 local), albeit the session featured an early red flag stop for Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli after he beached himself at Turn 7. Following an initial stint on the White hard compound, drivers switched to softs for their respective Quali sims. Bearman posted a fast lap of 1:20.607 to land the British rookie P14 on the timesheets with Ocon behind his team mate in P16 - the Frenchman banking a quick lap of 1:20.654. Sustained running on the hard rubber concluded Friday's practice.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 103 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 - 52 from Bearman and 51 from Ocon.

Ollie Bearman: "It was a good day overall, and we improved a lot from FP1 to FP2. In FP1 I personally struggled a lot with the car, especially in the low-speed corners, which is obviously quite important on a track like this. In FP2 we made a big step in car feeling and confidence levels, so that was positive, and we'll try to make a few more steps before the race. I was struggling a little bit in Parabolica with car balance, the wind wasn't in our favor, so that was the biggest time loss. It looks like we're lacking on the straights and I'm not sure what we can do about that, but we'll work overnight to see how we can improve."

Esteban Ocon: "It's interesting to get back to Monza, it's a very special circuit with a lot of unique characteristics. I think we improved the car from FP1 to FP2, but we need a little bit more tomorrow as we're not where we want to be in terms of pace, but it's close out there. We improved the balance and how the car felt, we know the direction we need to go, and it's up to us now to make the difference."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "In FP1, we didn't start too strongly but our reaction has been good. Everyone worked well together and that's improved the car, so both drivers are much happier. On low-fuel, we have a bit more set-up work to do but it's pretty clear which area we need to work on. On high-fuel, we've got a decent baseline, so I'd say it's been a reasonably successful Friday. I'm very happy with how we worked both in sessions but particularly between FP1 and FP2, so we'll do that again tonight and see what improvement we can find in FP3."