Mercedes F1 fastest in practice while Red Bull struggles at Imola

The Crimson Bulls strike difficulty in follow for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola on Friday, while Valtteri Bottas led Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton one-two in both periods.

Sergio Perez collided with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in the morning, bringing out pink flags, and the Mexican’s teammate Max Verstappen stopped his Crimson Bull in the afternoon with a driveshaft trouble.

Bottas, who was on pole at the Italian circuit past yr, clocked a very best lap of one moment 16.564 seconds in the initial session and one:fifteen.551 in the second.

7-time world winner Hamilton, past year’s race winner when Imola returned to the calendar in November, was .041 slower in the morning and a mere .010 off after lunch.

“If I compare it to Bahrain, how the car‘s experience, it’s certainly experience far better so that is nice, but it’s a distinctive monitor and distinctive style of circuit and surface and grip degree,” mentioned Bottas. “At the very least the weekend started in a favourable way … I am a whole lot happier with the car now than 3 months in the past.

“We certainly failed to see the very best out of Crimson Bull nevertheless currently,” included the Finn. “No question they are likely to be quick, and we nonetheless do not think we have the speediest car. We actually require to establish that on Saturday.”

Championship chief Hamilton mentioned he had no key issues and the tires were being operating properly.

“So considerably a fantastic day for us,” he mentioned. “I do not think we’ve seen the very best from the Crimson Bulls nevertheless, it seemed like they had fairly a messy session.”

Verstappen, Hamilton’s closest rival in the Bahrain period-opener when he started on pole and completed second, was third in the initial session but managed only five laps in the afternoon before halting.

“I think you know what you have to do anyway, so it need to be alright,” he mentioned of the setback. “We just have to focus on ourselves to do a far better job.”

The initial session ended with Russian rookie Nikita Mazepin spinning his Haas at the ultimate corner for the second time in the house of an hour, and the second was pink flagged when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed into the tire boundaries.

“Sorry fellas. I was pushing … fairly a little bit,” mentioned Leclerc from the cockpit.

Leclerc had been fourth speediest in the morning and in advance of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who ended the day third speediest.

Specialized difficulties that afflicted radio communications and information contributed to the change five collision amongst Frenchman Ocon and Perez.

The particulars of the coming jointly were being not straight away apparent, with cameras not capturing photos, but stewards made a decision to get no additional action.

“Ocon slowed before change five in buy to let Perez by, as properly as relocating completely to the within of the change,” they mentioned in a statement. “Perez was on a quick lap. The two cars attained the apex at the same time, and just hardly touched wheels.

“Both equally drivers agreed in the listening to that it was an unlucky miscommunication of timing amongst them, not served by the actuality that both drivers had constrained or no communications with their teams at the time.”

Perez’s car came to halt with the still left rear tire in shreds, while Ocon parked up additional down the monitor.