Formula 1

F1 EMILIA ROMAGNA GP – PRACTICE – HAMILTON LEADS FROM VERSTAPPEN, BOTTAS

Published

2 years ago

31/10/2020

F1 EMILIA ROMAGNA GP - HAMILTON LEADS FROM VERSTAPPEN BOTTAS

Full practice results for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, round 13 of the 2020 F1 world championship season.

F1 EMILIA ROMAGNA GP – Lewis Hamilton was fastest as Formula 1 began its return to Imola with Emilia Romagna Grand Prix practice, but Max Verstappen kept Mercedes on its toes.

Verstappen and Red Bull dominated the top of the timesheets in the first half hour of the weekend’s sole practice session on Saturday morning with a string of ever-more-rapid laps on hard tyres.

It took a move to mediums for Mercedes to initially get ahead by just over a tenth of a second with Valtteri Bottas 27 minutes in, with Verstappen then retaking the top spot 10 minutes later on softs.

Hamilton got to within 0.008s of Verstappen’s time using mediums shortly afterwards, before the top teams all had a spell focusing on soft tyres and full-on qualifying simulations.

2020 F1 EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX – FREE PRACTICE RESULTS


POS	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m 14.726
2	Max Verstappen	NED	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1m 15.023
3	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m 15.218
4	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m 15.633
5	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1m 15.688
6	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Renault F1 Team	1m 15.839
7	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Renault F1 Team	1m 15.945
8	Daniil Kvyat	RUS	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m 15.966
9	Alexander Albon	THA	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1m 16.061
10	Lance Stroll	CAN	BWT Racing Point F1 Team	1m 16.082
11	Sergio Perez	MEX	BWT Racing Point F1 Team	1m 16.109
12	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Scuderia Ferrari	1m 16.217
13	Romain Grosjean	FRA	Haas F1 Team	1m 16.550
14	Carlos Sainz	SPA	McLaren F1 Team	1m 16.560
15	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m 16.564
16	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m 16.671
17	Kimi Raikkonen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m 16.684
18	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1m 16.780
19	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1m 17.060
20	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1m 17.779

Initially this produced a Verstappen-Hamilton-Bottas order in which the Red Bull was fastest by two tenths.

But Hamilton had a successful second flying lap on the same set of tyres a few minutes later and put in the 1m14.726s that stood as the session’s best by 0.297s over Verstappen and 0.492s over Bottas.

The leading three were a second clear of the rest for most of the session, while a large pack behind was generally covered by just a few tenths – and generally shuffled by lap deletions for track limits infringements at Piratella and the Variante Alta.

Pierre Gasly, rapid throughout the morning at AlphaTauri’s home track, ended up at the head of that group in fourth, with Charles Leclerc putting Ferrari ahead of the Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon in fifth right at the end.

The second Red Bull of Alex Albon was down in ninth between Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri and the Racing Points.

A lap deletion meant Sebastian Vettel was last for a long spell, but he did haul himself up to 12th in the end.

It was Nicholas Latifi who ultimately ended up slowest, having sat out much of the session with a problem on his Williams’s braking system.

The track proved as challenging as expected, but there were no major incidents.

Though Kvyat explored the Tamburello gravel early on, Carlos Sainz Jr went off on the way out of Rivazza 2 and Kevin Magnussen went over the Variante Alta grass they were all able to continue.

F1 EMILIA ROMAGNA GP – HAMILTON LEADS FROM VERSTAPPEN, BOTTAS F1 EMILIA ROMAGNA GP – HAMILTON LEADS FROM VERSTAPPEN, BOTTAS

WOLFF LOOKS TO LEAVE THE TEAM IN THE SAFE HANDS OF HIS SUCCESSOR

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