Imola opens European season with plenty of firsts

IMOLA, Italy : Formula One's European season kicks off at Imola on Sunday with Lewis Hamilton racing in Italy for the first time as a Ferrari driver while local teen hero Kimi Antonelli makes his home debut with Mercedes.

Even if champions McLaren take their sixth win in seven races, with Lando Norris hoping to cut teammate Oscar Piastri's lead, there will be some notable firsts when Imola hosts the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

Argentine Franco Colapinto will be back in the spotlight as he takes the place of Australian Jack Doohan with a first appearance for Renault-owned Alpine after nine races with Williams at the end of last year.

Then, he made his debut at Monza and he now starts again at Italy's other current F1 circuit.

Alpine, in their first race since team principal Oliver Oakes surprisingly resigned, will be looking for Colapinto to repeat his scoring exploits rather than the costly crashes that have also accompanied him.

Hamilton has had a tough start to life at Maranello, despite winning the Shanghai sprint race, and appears to have undergone a general reset ahead of Imola - named after Enzo Ferrari and son Dino - by removing distractions on social media.

The seven-times world champion, who joined Ferrari in January, has 39.5 million followers on Instagram but is no longer following anybody - including Ferrari and his dog Roscoe.

Ferrari are fourth overall, already 152 points behind McLaren, with a lone third place for Charles Leclerc in Jeddah the only podium place they have to show for their efforts in regular grands prix.

Record race winner Hamilton, whose 105 career victories include one at Imola in 2020, has yet to finish higher than fifth this season and lags Antonelli in the standings.

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