Lewis Hamilton arrived stylishly on the day of the Italian Grand Prix qualifying for Ducati bikes.
The seven-time world champion attracted much attention as he swayed into the Monza Padoc on his Ducati Panigal V4 S Superbike featuring Italian red, white and green Tricolour colours.
Hamilton changed bike makers earlier this year ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, winning the new top Ducati. He had previously ridden MV Agusta.
The 1103cc Ducati Panigale V4 s is located at the top of the sports bike spectrum, boasting 216bhp and 120.9nm of torque at 11,250rpm.
Hamilton will be taking part in his first Italian Grand Prix this weekend as a Ferrari driver.
However, the 40-year-old Briton will offer a fifth-place grid penalty at the Italian Grand Prix after failing to slow the double-wave yellow flag down ahead of the race at Zandvort last Sunday.
Hamilton crashed from Ferrari’s miserable Dutch Grand Prix, and his teammate Charles Leclair was taken away by Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli as Scuderia suffered a disastrous double DNF.
The new Ferrari star signing gave a promising start to the team’s home weekend by leading Leclair 1-2 in opening practice.
Lewis Hamilton about the “incredible” Monza experience
Looking back on his first drive at Ferrari in Monza after practice on Friday, Hamilton said:
“It was just the whole experience in the blue, but I joined the team. I’m in the garage. I went with Tifosi in Milan on Thursday and came out there and drove out of the red car garage.
“That’s all I thought I’d ever been. The P1 was a good session, and P2, we made some changes to the car, but that was a bit of a bad thing. The good thing is that we can go back to it.
“I felt that P1 was really strong. P2 was definitely a much more struggle, but it’s better to learn that on P2 rather than P2 and then learn from it.
“From today there have been a lot of positive positive things, and we do some work overnight, and we hope to get better tomorrow.
“I think McLaren is clearly very fast. They’re very close to everyone in the top five and people in the top ten. It’s a challenge. It’s not easy to overtake, and it’s obviously a shame.