Mercedes 1-2 in opening Imola F1 practice

Valtteri Bottas turned a lap of 1m16.564s to pip his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.041s to top opening practice for the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix F1 race at Imola.

With time on the clock out, Red Bull’s  Verstappen was on a hot lap… but then the red flag flew out as Mazepin spun off (his 2nd of the session) and crashed into the barriers at the pit lane exit.

Replays showed that the Russian got a tiny bit wide, put two wheels into the gravel and couldn’t correct the spin, sliding off into the barriers.

Verstappen ended up third quick just 0.058s behind Bottas.

Charles Leclerc was 4th quick in the #16 Ferrari while Pierre Gasly rounded out the top-5 for AlphaTauri. Carlos Sainz was 6th quick in the #55 Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel continued to embarrass himself down in 14th place 1.4s off the pace while his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll was 8th, 0.925s behind Bottas. We do not know what has happened to Vettel, but clearly he appears to be washed up.

There was another red flag for the session when Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez touched.

Practice 1 Results

Pos Driver Team Laps Time Gap
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 23 1m16.564s 0.000s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 25 1m16.605s 0.041s
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 21 1m16.622s 0.058s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 13 1m16.796s 0.232s
5 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 21 1m16.888s 0.324s
6 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 26 1m16.888s 0.324s
7 Fernando Alonso Alpine 23 1m17.457s 0.893s
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 19 1m17.489s 0.925s
9 Nicholas Latifi Williams 24 1m17.739s 1.175s
10 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 23 1m17.769s 1.205s
11 George Russell Williams 25 1m17.866s 1.302s
12 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 16 1m17.883s 1.319s
13 Lando Norris McLaren 16 1m17.935s 1.371s
14 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 23 1m17.984s 1.420s
15 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 24 1m18.058s 1.494s
16 Sergio Perez Red Bull 15 1m18.228s 1.664s
17 Esteban Ocon Alpine 20 1m18.360s 1.796s
18 Nikita Mazepin Haas 22 1m18.823s 2.259s
19 Mick Schumacher Haas 18 1m19.480s 2.916s
20 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 11 1m19.781s 3.217s