Bottas pips Verstappen in opening F1 Tuscan GP practice

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time to lead opening practice at Formula 1’s Tuscan Grand Prix.

Bottas set a time which was just 0.048s quicker than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc an encouraging third for Ferrari and just 0.307s off the pace on the opening day of running at the Scuderia’s 1000th grand prix weekend.

World championship leader Lewis Hamilton could only set the fourth-best time in his Mercedes, lapping over half a second slower than his teammate’s benchmark, which marked a new track record at Mugello.

Hamilton was warned about having some potential damage to his power unit in the closing stages of what was otherwise a relatively quiet session with few incidents, aside from a near miss at Turn 1 involving Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean, and a late spin for Williams driver Nicholas Latifi.

Fresh from winning last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Pierre Gasly was again towards the top of the timesheets as he completed the top-five in his AlphaTauri, just 0.797s off the pace.

Renault’s Esteban Ocon was sixth, ahead of the second AlphaTauri of Daniil Kvyat, McLaren driver Lando Norris and Alex Albon’s Red Bull, while Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10.

Kimi Raikkonen took 11th for Alfa Romeo, with Grosjean’s Ferrari-powered Haas ahead of newly-named 2021 Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel, who was unable to match the pace of Ferrari teammate Leclerc as he ended up 13th.

Antonio Giovinazzi, Carlos Sainz, George Russell and Kevin Magnussen made up positions 14-17, with the Racing Point duo of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez a lowly 18th and 19th in the order due to focusing on race set-up.

Having recovered from his spin, Latifi was the slowest of the 20 drivers in his Williams and the only man unable to dip below the 1m20s mark.

The teams and drivers used the first 90-minute practice session to familiarise themselves with the 5.245km circuit, which has been described as being similar to riding a rollercoaster.

It is the first time that the Ferrari-owned Mugello Circuit has ever hosted an F1 world championship grand prix, having previously only acted as a testing venue most recently in 2012.

The track, which is based in the Tuscany region of Italy, is one of the additional venues added to the revised 2020 F1 calendar as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

FULL OPENING PRACTICE RESULTS FOR THE 2020 F1 TUSCAN GRAND PRIX.