Brendan Lines 5th Sept, 2020 08:18am

Valtteri Bottas began his hunt to close the gap in the World Championship lead setting the pace in Friday’s FP1 for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the Fin was +0.245 quicker than Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in P2 And Red Bull’s Alex Albon in P3.

Mercedes were able to stay ahead of the mixed up field despite new technical directives limiting the use of engine modes.

The Silver Arrows appear to have carried over its top speed in the low-downforce configuration, but Bottas believes there’s more to unpack.

“The car didn’t feel great in the first session but in the afternoon, I’m sure we can still improve it, for example the rear stability was lacking a bit in a few of the corners,” he said after FP1.

My lap in practice two wasn’t great so from my side, there’s quite a bit more to come as well. It’s an unusual track here, quite stop and start, with not so many high-speed corners and traction being very important out of the slow turns.

“The margins are so fine here and there aren’t many corners to make the difference.

“I was a little surprised by the lap times and performance compared to the others at this stage in the weekend, but I’m sure every team will find more time and it’ll be closer tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Red Bull’s Alex Albon was quick from the get-go his time of 1:21.500 was two tenths quicker than teammate Max Verstappen in P5, who’s struggle with car balance sent the Dutchman into the wall at the Ascari chicane red-flagging the session.

There was a deja-vu moment from 2019 as cars queued down the back straight looking for an aero advatage in the tow, but fortunately the field got on with the business of punching in fastest laps.

Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kyvat did just that finishing P5, just over a full tenth of a second ahead of his counterpart Pierre Gasly in P6, making for encouraging signs Alpha Tauri could be the fastest Italian team this year at Monza ahead of Ferrari.

The Scuderia had another double bogey session, finishing outside the top ten, Caherles Leclerc took P11 while Sebastian Vettel slumped to P19 some one and a half tenths down on Williams’ stand-in driver Roy Nissany in P18.

Sergio Perez was the fastest of the Racing Point cars in P7 fishing almost half a second clear of teammate Lance Stroll in P13.

Daniel Ricciardo was Friday’s curious case, after consecutive top three finishes in free practice sessions in recent weeks, Renault reported the Aussie was ‘focusing on future concepts‘ on his R.S.20.

Ricciardo finished P9 just over two tenths clear if teammate Esteban Ocon in P12.

Lando Norris was the fastest of the McLaren’s in P8 one and a half tenths ahead off Carlos Sainz in the sister McLaren, who rounded out the top ten.

Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen occupied P14 and P15 respectively, ahead of both Alfa Romeo’s lead by Antonio Giovinazzi from Kimi Räikkönen.

Nicholas Latifi finished P20 for Williams.