F1: Russell puts Mercedes on top in final Imola practice

It was George Russell and Mercedes who topped the second practice session for the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola Saturday morning, the first time they’ve managed that feat in any session this year.

The Briton, who sits second in the drivers’ standings, clocked 1m 19.457s on the softs, 0.081s quicker than the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, with championship leader Charles Leclerc a couple of tenths further back in third.

However, long runs were the name of the game ahead of today’s Sprint race at 10:30am ET; hence the timing sheets aren’t as relevant as usual.

Lewis Hamilton was 4th in the 2nd Mercedes, while Fernando Alonso rounded out the top-5 for Alpine.

Carlos Sainz, who crashed in qualifying and will start the F1 Sprint 10th, was sixth in his repaired Ferrari, a tenth of a second clear of pole-sitter Max Verstappen.

It wasn’t such good news for Valtteri Bottas, the Finn spending the entire session in the garage and thus failing to set a lap time.

This was also the case for Daniel Ricciardo, whose McLaren team discovered a mechanical issue with his car and were unable to fix it in time to get him out on track.

Imola Final Practice Times

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 63 George Russell Mercedes 1:19.457 +0.000s 31
2 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing RBPT 1:19.538 +0.081s 32
3 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:19.740 +0.283s 34
4 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.992 +0.535s 33
5 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine Renault 1:20.174 +0.717s 28
6 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1:20.258 +0.801s 30
7 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing RBPT 1:20.371 +0.914s 35
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri RBPT 1:20.381 +0.924s 34
9 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri RBPT 1:20.439 +0.982s 36
10 24 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo Ferrari 1:20.498 +1.041s 31
11 23 Alexander Albon Williams Mercedes 1:20.591 +1.134s 33
12 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:20.740 +1.283s 29
13 47 Mick Schumacher Haas Ferrari 1:20.977 +1.520s 28
14 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 1:21.149 +1.692s 37
15 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 1:21.155 +1.698s 37
16 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 1:21.179 +1.722s 29
17 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 1:21.263 +1.806s 30
18 4 Lando Norris Mclaren Mercedes 1:23.821 +4.364s 5
19 77 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Ferrari No Time 0
20 3 Daniel Ricciardo Mclaren Mercedes No Time 0