Karun Chandhok raves about Franco Colapinto trait Kimi Antonelli needed at Monza

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The first free practice session at Monza was a tale of two rookies as Franco Colapinto and Kimi Antonelli took to the track.

After months of waiting, F1 fans finally got a brief glimpse of Kimi Antonelli and the ten minutes he was on the track were very promising until they weren’t.

He briefly went fastest as he pushed the Mercedes very early on in the session before spinning off at Parabolica in the same spot where the safety car found the barriers on Thursday.

The other rookie in action was Franco Colapinto in his Williams car and he managed to survive until the end of the session.

The Argentinian went off at exactly the same spot in the final moments but managed to avoid the barriers to bring the car home.

Karun Chandhok reflected on how the two youngsters fared for Sky Sports F1 and the different scenarios they were in.

READ MORE: Who is Mercedes academy driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli? Everything to know

Antonelli won’t return to an F1 session for some time but is expected to be on the grid in 2025.

That’s in stark contrast to Colapinto who already knows he won’t be hired by Williams next year but has nine races to prove to the Formula 1 paddock that he’s worth keeping a close eye on.

Karun Chandhok reflects on Kimi Antonelli and Franco Colapinto’s FP1 session at Monza

Talking about both drivers, Chandhok said: “So, he’s on a set of soft tyres going up to the second Lesmo there, his first sector is not particularly special on this lap.

“I think the tyres, he’s not on a fresh set at the moment, so they’ve done a little bit of mileage.

“Williams are just trying to give him that mileage and to be honest, he’s being very sensible, isn’t he?

“We saw him have a little bit of an oversteer moment and dip a wheel onto the gravel earlier but otherwise he’s just dialling himself in.

“If you look at the overall times, he’s six-tenths off [Alex Albon], that doesn’t matter so much as long as he’s kept it on the island and he’s learning which is unfortunately for Antonelli not what he did.

“So, Colapinto, he looks sensible, he looks like he’s just going through a program, being sensible about it and maybe that is the difference between knowing you’ve got three sessions to dial yourself in rather than Antonelli who knew he had one hour to make an impression.”

Martin Brundle has his say on Franco Colapinto being promoted by Williams

It didn’t come as a huge surprise that Williams decided to part ways with Logan Sargeant after the Dutch Grand Prix.

He was costing the team a lot of money with his various crashes over the course of the season and not performing at a high enough level to score points.

However, it was a surprise to see Colapinto get the nod over the likes of Liam Lawson and Mick Schumacher.

READ MORE: Everything to know about Williams driver Franco Colapinto with praise to stats

Martin Brundle has shared his thoughts on Colapinto’s promotion to the Williams team and he’s got two very difficult races to prepare for after Monza that will really test his skills.

Baku and Singapore are incredibly tricky street circuits although Lawson managed to score points at the latter last year.

The goal for the Argentinian has to be to close the gap to Albon and potentially even do something Sargeant never managed – cross the line in a race in the top ten.