Mercedes Valtteri Bottas went quickest in the first practice session ahead of Sunday’s FIA Formula 1 70thAnniversary Grand Prix, beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just over a tenth of a second at Silverstone.
After last weekend’s British Grand Prix, tyre manufacturer Pirelli has brought a softer tyre selection for this second race at the Northamptonshire Circuit and as such all drivers prioritised running on the red-banded soft tyre during a 90-minute session in which track temperatures hit 45˚C.
Bottas set a time a best time of 1:26.166s on the soft compound and that saw him finish 0.138s ahead of last weekend’s race winner Hamilton. Third place in the session went to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, though the Dutch driver finished more than seven tenths of a second adrift of Botta’s table topper.
With Sergio Pérez returning another positive COVID-19 test, Nico Hülkenberg once again took over the Mexican’s seat at Racing Point and after finding his feet last weekend, the German claimed fourth place in his first session of his second weekend back in F1 with a time of 1:26.942, just under five hundredths slower than Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc took fifth place for Ferrari, almost nine-tenths of a second behind Bottas. The Monegasque, who finished on the podium last weekend, ended the session over three tenths of a second clear of teammate Sebastian Vettel. The German driver finished in seventh place, behind the second Red Bull of Alexander Albon.
Lance Stroll finished eighth for Racing Point, over half a second down on team-mate Hulkenberg's time, while Daniil Kvyat and Esteban Ocon completed the top 10 for AlphaTauri and Renault.
2020 FIA 70thAnniversary Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:26.166 21 246.124
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:26.304 0.138 23 245.731
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:26.893 0.727 24 244.065
4 Nico Hülkenberg Racing Point/Mercedes 1:26.942 0.776 25 243.928
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:27.062 0.896 20 243.591
6 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 1:27.280 1.114 22 242.983
7 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:27.498 1.332 21 242.378
8 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 1:27.539 1.373 26 242.264
9 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 1:27.653 1.487 27 241.949
10 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:27.701 1.535 23 241.817
11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:27.707 1.541 23 241.800
12 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1:27.846 1.680 26 241.417
13 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1:27.908 1.742 26 241.247
14 Carlos Sainz McLaren/Renault 1:28.138 1.972 28 240.618
15 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:28.170 2.004 24 240.530
16 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:28.226 2.060 24 240.378
17 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:28.511 2.345 23 239.604
18 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:28.655 2.489 24 239.214
19 Robert Kubica Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:28.960 2.794 22 238.394
20 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:29.319 3.153 17 237.436
