Mercedes on top in Spain as Valtteti Bottas goes fastest

Spanish Grand Prix

Mercedes on top in Spain as Bottas goes fastest

Mercedes once again dominate

Sam Hall

Friday 14 August 2020 12:35 Updated: 12:42

Mercedes once again dominated proceedings in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix with Valtteri Bottas narrowly heading Lewis Hamilton.

Valtteri Bottas dropped behind Max Verstappen in the drivers' championship standings when Max Verstappen took victory at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, but the Finn has come out punching in Spain.

Ending the session just +0.0.39 seconds ahead of Hamilton, Mercedes looked ominous in its dominance of the session, finishing practice one with an advantage on +0.939 seconds to Verstappen in third.

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The session showed little difference between Red Bull and Ferrari, with Max Verstappen third fastest and only two tenths faster than Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel in fourth and fifth.

Vettel had been given a new chassis for the weekend after a "small fault" was discovered between the post-Silverstone analysis and the German was instantly back on the pace with team-mate Leclerc.

Only one-hundredth separated the two drivers in the session.

Alex Albon finished eighth, his session having been briefly paused after the team lost a sensor signal.

Focussing largely on soft tyre runs, Haas sprung a surprise with both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen ending the session inside the top ten.

Sixth and ninth respectively, the pair gave credence to the pre-race optimism of team principal Guenther Steiner that points could be scored this weekend.

On his return, Sergio Perez set the seventh with Lance Stroll rounding out the top ten.

Having shown early pace, Daniel Ricciardo dropped to 18th for Renault, faster only than Nicholas Latifi and Williams reserve driver Roy Nissany.

Daniil Kvyat spent large chunks of the session in the garage as AlphaTauri again struggled with reliability problems.