Bottas Tops First Practice Session at Monza as Verstappen Crashes

By FIA

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas went quickest in the opening practice session for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton by over two tenths of a second as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen crashed out.

The session was approaching the halfway mark when Verstappen lost control in the Ascari chicane and spun off. He hit the wall, breaking his front wing and causing damage to the nose cone. He was able to keep his car going, however, and limped back to the pit lane as the red flag were shown. He later rejoined the session with approximately 20 minutes left on the clock and ended the session in fifth place.

Prior to the Dutchman’s crash, Bottas had led the way on medium tires but following he stoppage the field began to focus on soft tires running and Bottas posted a best lap of 1:20.703s to beat Hamilton.

Third place in the session went to Alex Albon in the second Red Bull. The Thai driver finished almost eight tenths of a second behind Bottas, while Daniil Kvyat made a strong start for AlphaTauri with fourth place, just five hundredths of a second behind the lead Red Bull.

With Verstappen fifth, P6 in the session went to Pierre Gasly in the second AlphaTauri. The Frenchman finished as the last man within a second of Bottas and set his time on medium tyres.

Despite setting an identical time to McLaren’s Lando Norris, Racing Point driver Sergio Pérez took seventh place by virtue of establishing the time earlier in the session. Daniel Ricciardo finished in ninth place and the top 10 order was rounded out by Carlos Sainz in the second McLaren.

2020 FIA Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:20.703 28 258.414
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:20.948 0.245 27 257.632
3 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 1:21.500 0.797 30 255.887
4 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 1:21.555 0.852 31 255.714
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:21.641 0.938 22 255.445
6 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:21.667 0.964 27 255.363
7 Sergio Pérez Racing Point/Mercedes 1:21.747 1.044 25 255.113
8 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1:21.747 1.044 29 255.113
9 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:21.789 1.086 22 254.982
10 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 1:21.821 1.118 27 254.883
11 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:21.904 1.201 25 254.624
12 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:21.984 1.281 28 254.376
13 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 1:22.131 1.428 21 253.921
14 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1:22.409 1.706 20 253.064
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:22.422 1.719 19 253.024
16 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:22.552 1.849 24 252.626
17 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:22.619 1.916 27 252.421
18 Roy Nissany Williams/Mercedes 1:22.826 2.123 25 251.790
19 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:22.988 2.285 24 251.298
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:23.120 2.417 22 250.899