Mercedes drivers Valterri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton steered their approach by means of two pink flags on Friday to the very best occasions of the primary observe session for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. Bottas was quickest around the legendary Imola circuit however was lower than one-tenth of a second sooner than his teammate. Equally there was a cigarette paper between Hamilton, who gained the opening race in Bahrain, and Purple Bull’s Max Verstappen, the younger pretender to the Briton’s world crown. Verstappen was second in Bahrain and Bottas third.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who expects “necessary solutions” from his automobile this weekend, was fourth quickest, forward of Frenchman Pierre Gasly within the AlphaTauri.

Simply behind have been the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso within the Alpine.

The primary of the three observe periods was additionally marked by two pink flags.

An incident between Purple Bull’s Sergio Perez and the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, which escaped the cameras, resulted in each vehicles broken and off the monitor.

The state of Perez’s rear-left tyre and the Frenchman’s front-right tyre instructed contact.

“I’ve solely had it from the motive force’s perspective however clearly it seems like Ocon was on a sluggish lap, and Sergio was on a flying lap and there’s been contact between the 2 guys into that nook,” stated Purple Bull workforce boss Christian Horner.

The second pink flag got here simply earlier than the top of the session after Haas rookie Nikita Mazepin went too large right into a nook and spun.

It was one other unlucky incident for the 22-year-old Russian. He failed to finish the opening lap in Bahrain and has been tagged with the nickname ‘Mazespin’.

The second observe session begins at 1230 GMT.

Follow occasions after first session:

1. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) 1min 16.564sec, 2. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) at 0.041sec, 3.Max Verstappen (NED/Purple Bull-Honda) 0.058, 4. Charles Leclerc (MON/Ferrari) 0.232, 5. Pierre Gasly (FRA/AlphaTauri-Honda) 0.324, 6. Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP/Ferrari) st, 7. Fernando Alonso (ESP/Alpine-Renault) 0.893, 8. Lance Stroll (CAN/Aston Martin-Mercedes) 0.925, 9. Nicholas Latifi (CAN/Williams-Mercedes) 1.085, 10. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/McLaren-Mercedes) 1.205, 11. George Russell (GBR/Williams-Mercedes) 1.302, 12. Kimi Räikkönen (FIN/Alfa Romeo-Ferrari) 1.319, 13. Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes) 1.371, 14. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Aston Martin-Mercedes) 1.42, 15. Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA/Alfa Romeo-Ferrari) 1.494, 16. Sergio Perez (MEX/Purple Bull-Honda) 1.664, 17. Esteban Ocon (FRA/Alpine-Renault) 1.796, 17. Nikita Mazepin (RUS/Haas-Ferrari) 2.259, 18. Mick Schumacher (GER/Haas-Ferrari) 2.916, 19. Yuki Tsunoda (JPN/AlphaTauri-Honda) 3.217

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