Brendan Lines 12 Sept, 2020 08:00am

Valtteri Bottas was quickest in FP1, topping the time charts for the fifth consecutive Friday morning session this season, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in P2 and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in a strong P3 to luck off the Scuderia’ s 1000th race weekend.

Bottas’ time of 1:17.879s is the first official fastest lap time in anger, as the field explored the Mugello layout for Formula 1’s first ever race at weekend at the circuit.

“It’s been a lot of fun today and I’ve enjoyed every single lap. The whole opening section with the high-speed chicanes and the second sector is just amazing and the car felt pretty good out there,” Bottas said after practice.

“I struggled with quite a lot of understeer in the first session and still in places in the second session, but it felt better.

“I think there’s still quite a bit of lap time to unlock, both in the car and also as a driver. This track is definitely one of the most physically demanding.

“We’ll only properly get to see the effects of that in the race distance, but even today, I could feel it and it’s going to be tough for everyone on Sunday.

“It’s also quite unforgiving, with little margin for error and that’s how it should be.”

Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton was just half a second off Bottas, taking P4.

The high downforce layout has brought Red Bull back into the fold as Max Verstappen was just four hundredths adrift of the Mercedes in P2, with a time of 1:17.927s, his teammate Alex Albon finished the session in P9

It was a fast Friday for Ferrari, as Charles Leclerc finished an encouraging P3 was just two and a half tenths off Verstappen, while Sebastian Vettel finished in P13.

Pierre Gasly was the fastest of the Alpha Tauri cars in P5 his time of 1:18.676s was half a tenth quicker than teammate Daniil Kyvat in P7.

Esteban Ocon was a surprise fastest of the Renault cars in P6, he pipped teammate Daniel Ricciardo in P10 considerably by half a second.

Lando Norris was the sole McLaren in the top ten, the Brit finished P8 with a time of 1:18:981s some seven places clear of teammate Carlos Sainz.

Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen took P11 for the session, the Fin was just under a tenth shy of Ricciardo’s P10, Antonio Giovinazzi finished behind his Alfa teammate in P14.

Romain Grosjean managed P12 after a incident filled session, first arguing over the same piece if track as Sergio Perez and losses from his Power Unit in the medium speed corners, his teammate Kevin Magnussen finished three tenths adrift in P17.

It was a more of a learning session for Racing Point it’s drivers Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez ended the session in P18 and P19 respectively.

George Russell was fastest if the Williams in P16, over half a second ahead of the sister Williams if Nicholas Latifi in P20.