Bottas doubles up in F1 Tuscan GP FP2, Norris crashes

Valtteri Bottas completed a Friday practice sweep at the Tuscan Grand Prix by leading Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Lewis Hamilton in a session that was red-flagged twice.

Bottas carried on where he left off in FP1 as he once again set the pace at Mugello, this time posting a new benchmark time as the only driver to lap under the 1m17 bracket.

A 1m16.989s saw the Finn end second practice 0.207s clear of championship leader Hamilton, who himself was just 0.039s faster than the third-placed Red Bull driven by Max Verstappen.

The session was interrupted by red flags on two occasions – the first caused when Norris speared into the barriers between Turn 3 and 4 after the McLaren driver dipped his wheels in the gravel, before Sergio Perez and Kimi Raikkonen tangled at Turn 1 in bizarre incident.

Perez had just left the pits and appeared to fail to see Raikkonen as the Finn took the racing line through San Donato, with the Racing Point driver tagging the back of Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo and spinning him into the gravel.

The contact littered debris across the track at Turn 1, resulting in a brief red flag stoppage in the closing stages of FP2 to allow marshals to clear up.

Alex Albon was some seven-tenths adrift of Verstappen in the second Red Bull, with Daniel Ricciardo edging out Renault teammate Esteban Ocon to take fifth spot.

Perez was seventh quickest ahead of the AlphaTauri of Italian Grand Prix winner Pierre Gasly. Raikkonen was an encouraging ninth for Alfa Romeo, while Charles Leclerc could not replicate his promising FP1 pace as he fell to 10th in his Ferrari.

11th place went the way of Lance Stroll, while Sebastian Vettel spun en route to finishing the session in 12th, though the four-time world champion did not complete a qualifying simulation run of the Soft compound tyre. The German also stopped on track as the chequered flag was waved, reporting he had lost power in his SF1000. 

The McLaren’s were over a second and a half down in P13 and P14 as Carlos Sainz narrowly outpaced his teammate who ended his session prematurely due to his crash.

AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat was 15th ahead of the lead Williams of George Russell, Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo and Nicholas Latifi, with the Haas duo of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean setting the slowest times of FP2.

As he did in the morning, Grosjean once again encountered engine-related problems which ultimately brought his afternoon running to an end after just five laps.

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