Valtteri Bottas opened the second weekend of the 2021 F1 season in Imola with the fastest time in the first free practice where the first three drivers were within 0.058 seconds, and training was interrupted twice due to incidents between Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon and a crash for Nikita Mazepin.

Training began in fairly cold conditions with an air temperature of 12 degrees Celsius and a track temperature of 22 degrees, and the drivers had the same three tyre components (C2, C3 and C4) as in the previous weekend in Bahrain where the track temperatures were almost 30 degrees higher.

Drivers set out to make laps at 1:18, with Sainz, Hamilton and Verstappen first descending at 1:17 while Tsunoda had his first off track excursion in a fast Tamburello chicane in the first sector, without damaging his AlphaTauri.

Gasly took the lead for AlphaTauri with a lap of 1:17.470, two tenths ahead of Sainz in Ferrari and four tenths ahead of Hamilton in Mercedes, and Leclerc was the only driver after half an hour who did not have a timed lap.

Bottas set the best time for Mercedes 25 minutes before the end, 1:17.396, 0.074 s ahead of Gasly, and a few minutes later his time was knocked down by Verstappen (1:17.331) and Sainz (1:17.296) who once again took first place for Ferrari .

Training was interrupted 22 minutes before the end after an incident between Perez and Ocon in Villeneuve chicane while Ocon was in a slow lap so their damaged cars could be removed from the track, and practice resumed after eight minutes.

Sainz immediately improved his best time on soft tires and drove 1:17.197 in the first lap, but his time was soon knocked down by several drivers including Leclerc who finally set his first time of the day.

Bottas finished FP1 with a fastest time of 1:16.564, 0.041 seconds ahead of Hamilton and 0.058 seconds ahead of Verstappen while Leclerc finished third fastest for Ferrari with two tenths of a second behind.

2021 Emilia Romagna GP Imola Bottas Mercedes F1 W12 Photo Daimler
Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes F1 W12, 2021 Emilia Romagna GP (Photo: Daimler)

Gasly finished fourth for AlphaTauri, in the same spot where he started last year’s race at Imola, and Sainz was sixth for Ferrari, a tenth behind teammate Leclerc, after twice holding the leading position.

Alonso finished seventh for Alpine in the last moments ahead of Stroll in Aston Martin who is the last driver with a gap of less than a second while Latifi surprised with the ninth fastest time for Williams whom the track in Imola should suit much better than Bahrain.

Ricciardo rounded out the top10 for McLaren with 1.2 seconds behind the fastest Bottas, ahead of Russell in second Williams and Raikkonen as the faster Alfa Romeo driver.

Norris was 13th fastest for McLaren ahead of Vettel in Aston Martin and Giovinazzi in Alfa Romeo while Perez finished only 16th for Red Bull ahead of Ocon with whom he collided in Villeneuve’s chicane.

Practice ended with Mazepin’s crash after which he smashed his Haas in the wall at the entrance to the pits causing a second red flag at the very end of training while he and Schumacher finished 18th and 19th.

Tsunoda was the slowest in the first practice with more than three seconds behind for AlphaTauri and with only 11 laps under his belt – second free practice is on the schedule at 14:30 local time.

FP1 RESULTS

1 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:16.564 23
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:16.605 0.041 25
3 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:16.622 0.058 21
4 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:16.796 0.232 13
5 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:16.888 0.324 21
6 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1:16.888 0.324 26
7 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:17.457 0.893 23
8 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:17.489 0.925 19
9 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:17.739 1.175 24
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1:17.769 1.205 23
11 63 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:17.866 1.302 25
12 7 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:17.883 1.319 16
13 4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:17.935 1.371 16
14 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:17.984 1.420 23
15 99 A.Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:18.058 1.494 24
16 11 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda 1:18.228 1.664 15
17 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:18.360 1.796 20
18 9 Nikita Mazepin Haas/Ferrari 1:18.823 2.259 22
19 47 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1:19.480 2.916 18
20 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Honda 1:19.781 3.217 11
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