Bottas fastest again at Mugello, session twice red-flagged

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas completed a clean sweep of fastest times at Mugello on Friday, becoming the first driver into the 1m16s in the afternoon session.

Second practice was interrupted twice by red flags.

First McLaren’s Lando Norris lost control and crashed at the exit of the Poggio Secco right-hander after touching the gravel.

He wasn’t able to return the car to the pits and had to walk back.

With just over 40 minutes left in the session, the shunt teed up the frontrunners to bolt on the softest tyres and simulate qualifying. However the drivers have found high tyre temperatures difficult to manage, especially when trying to do multiple fast laps.

On his best run, Bottas managed a phenomenal 1m16.989s to best his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.207s.

Max Verstappen appeared to make a small mistake on his best lap, which could mean his third fastest time was not representative of his actual pace as he trailed the session leader by 0.246s.

His Red Bull team-mate Alex Albon, who was some way off the sister car in FP1, got much closer with his late soft tyre run and leaped into fourth, within seven tenths of Verstappen by the end of the day.

Albon had a gear shifter issue towards the end of the session, and was sparking significantly at Arrabbiata 1 earlier on.

Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top five ahead of team-mate Esteban Ocon, completing a three-team sweep of the top six. The Renaults also look respectable on a longer run on the soft tyres.

Sergio Perez didn’t set a representative lap on the soft tyre at the same time as his rivals in FP1, but righted that wrong in the second session to score seventh, ahead of Monza race winner Pierre Gasly who was the first of the Alpha Tauris.

Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen was the highest-placed Ferrari-powered car in ninth, just beating Charles Leclerc to round out the top 10.

It wasn’t a trouble free session for Raikkonen though, having lapped the most in the session with just over 15 minutes to go, he was surprised to find Perez exiting the pits at Turn 1 and clipped Perez’s left-front as he turned in.

Raikkonen spun into the gravel but was able to get going, although another red flag ensued to clear on-track debris.

Perez has been summoned to the stewards over the incident.

Leclerc had been third in the first practice session but team boss Mattia Binotto expected that wasn’t Ferrari’s actual pace – an opinion seemingly backed up by its more subdued effort in FP2.

Its second car driven by Sebastian Vettel was 12th – behind the driver he’ll partner at Aston Martin next year, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll – and then stopped with a technical problem after the chequered flag.

Stroll’s most significant part in the session was giving Bottas a decent tow on his flying lap that topped the session.

Carlos Sainz Jr headed the McLarens in 13th with Norris just behind despite missing the last 40 minutes after his crash.

Daniil Kvyat did a lot of running on the soft tyre but was just under half a second slower than his team-mate Gasly in the top 10, Kvyat down in 15th in what was a competitive order behind the Mercedes and Red Bulls right the way through the field.

George Russell managed 16th for Williams ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi, Nicholas Latifi and the two Haas cars.

Kevin Magnussen was 19th, while Romain Grosjean managed only five laps before hearing an issue with his engine. He had complained of lacking power in first practice.

Practice 2 Results