Two red flags as Valtteri Bottas clean sweeps Friday practice at Mugello

Tuscan Grand Prix

Two red flags as Bottas clean sweeps Friday practice at Mugello

Ian Parkes

Friday 11 September 2020 16:32

Valtteri Bottas again led the way in a second practice session for the inaugural Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello that included two red flags.

After topping FP1 for the fifth consecutive race, Bottas completed a Friday sweep for the first time this season by finishing two-tenths of a second faster than Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

At the previous four races, Bottas was out in front on the timesheet in the morning, but failed to follow up in the afternoon.

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On this occasion, Bottas was comfortably quickest in FP2, setting a time of one minute 16.989secs - nine-tenths of a second quicker than his morning run - with Hamilton 0.207s off the pace of the Finn.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who had finished 0.046s behind Bottas in FP1, had to settle for third quickest in FP2, with the Dutch driver a quarter-of-a-second adrift.

The gap behind the leading trio was considerable, with Verstappen's team-mate Alex Albon fourth fastest, but almost a second down. Albon had bemoaned "lost gear sync" at one stage in the session.

There were two stoppages, though, with the first of those caused by Lando Norris in his McLaren.

Norris' session ended after 37 minutes as the British driver just caught the gravel emerging out of the turn 3, Poggio Secco, sending him into a spin that sent him sliding into a wall which resulted in him losing his front wing.

With 15 minutes remaining, there was a second red flag, with Racing Point's Sergio Perez tagging the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen on the entry to Turn One.

Perez had just emerged out of the pit lane, while Raikkonen was haring down the kilometre-long straight when the Mexican just caught the rear-right wheel of the Finn's car as they both turned into the first corner, sending the latter into the gravel.

Perez eventually finished seventh quickest, 1.209s down, with Renault duo Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon between him and Albon.

Raikkonen was a positive ninth for Alfa Romeo, just behind debut race winner Pierre Gasly following his triumph in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.

As for Ferrari, on the occasion of its history-making 1,000th grand prix, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, who both spun, finished 10th and 12th respectively. Vettel also stopped on track just after the chequered flag had fallen.

Leclerc had finished third quickest in FP1, but as team principal Mattia Binotto had suggested, that was a false position as he was expecting the grid order to shake itself up in the afternoon, and so it proved.

Racing Point's Lance Stroll sandwiched the duo in 11th, with the trio all around 1.5s behind Bottas.

Romain Grosjean finished bottom of the timesheet, completing just five laps due to an electronics problem that confined him to the garage for the majority of the session.

Grosjean, with a new turbocharger and MGU-H on the car for this weekend, had bemoaned little issues during FP1 before a more serious problem ruined his FP2.

The two sessions were certainly captivating around a fast, flowing, undulating circuit comprising 15 corners and a straight with cars hitting 200mph.

Before you go...

Gasly's Red Bull hopes shattered as it "wouldn't make sense" to swap with Albon - Horner

Perez axed due to contract options that "didn't exist" for undroppable Stroll - Szafnauer