#TuscanGP FP2 Report: @ValtteriBottas leads @LewisHamilton in @MercedesAMGF1 one-two. #F1

Valtteri Bottas lead from Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon FP2 session at the Tuscan GP with the session red-flagged twice.

Both Ferrari’s suffered spins in the final sector and the team’s owned circuit, but it was McLaren’s Lando Norris crash before the mid-way point and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez’s tangle with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen in the later stages that caused the red flags.

With clear skies and warm temperatures at the Autodromo Internazionale Del Mugello, the F1 grid continued to find the limit at the fast-flowing Mugello – where Norris lead to the first stoppage of the weekend.

The Briton just begun a hot-lap on the C3 red side-walled softs near the 40th minute mark of the session when he had to correct a slight moment of oversteer in his Renault-powered MCL5 racer running through Poggio Secco.

This put Norris a touch wide on the exit and his wheels dipped into the gravel beyond the outside kerbs, with the McLaren driver’s car snapping left and he darted into the wall, on the outside destroying his front wing.

The 90-minute session resumed after a 10 minute delay, after which Norris did not return to the track, where Bottas already held P1 during his early run on the C2 mediums with a 1:18.019 after Norris lead the initial running posting a 1:18.685, also on the yellow-marked tyres.

The Mercedes duo went out on the softs at the restart and moved to lower the benchmark, with Bottas leading from team-mate Hamilton around the 5.245km circuit.

Bottas posted the quickest sector’s one and two times to set the fastest of the session with a 1:16.989 – as team-mate Hamilton took the best time in the final sector but wound up 0.207 seconds adrift of Bottas’ Tuscan GP FP2 benchmark.

The Red Bull pairing followed with Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon taking third and fourth respectively, with the former 0.246 seconds off of Bottas’ Tuscan GP FP2 benchmark.

The top four runners were the only drivers to dip below the 1:18’s during the qualifying simulations, after which the rest of the session was dedicated to longer race runs.

This came to a halt by a second, shorter red flag, caused by Perez when he exited the pits with less than 15 minutes remaining and clipped Raikkonen’s left rear as the Alfa Romeo C39 went ahead of the Racing Point into San Donato.

The tangle lead Raikkonen off backwards beyond the first corner – although the Finn was able to return to the pits and broke Perez’s left-front-wing end-plate off, which meant the session was stopped again to remove the debris.

Perez was hit with a one-place grid drop for this weekend’s Grand Prix due to the incident after the stewards post-practice investigation.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo posted his best effort before the Norris incident, and the Australian held onto fifth after the rest of the field completed their qualifying simulations after the session restart.

Esteban Ocon followed his team-mate to take sixth in the other Renault and ended in-front of Perez (seventh), AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who was eighth and Raikkonen.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ended the day 10th after spinning off going through the Correntaio long-right just before the 15-minute mark.

The Monegasque-youngster lost the rear of his stunning near-maroon SF1000 racer following a slower travelling Alfa Romeo through the corner and went off backwards before spinning the car the right way and continuing.

BWT Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was 11th and ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who also spun at Correntaio, but was further around the corner compared to Leclerc.

Vettel’s moment happened just past the 60-minute mark as he also lost the rear of his SF1000 racer, sliding sideways across the inside of Biondetti 1 before continuing on.

Vettel then reported over the radio that his “engine stopped” on his final tour back to the pits as the German pulled over at the inside of Biondetti 2.

The two McLaren’s of Carlos Sainz and the aforementioned Norris were 13th and 14th respectively and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat who was 15th and Williams Racing’s George Russell who ended the day 16th.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi finished FP2 in 17th and ahead of the second Williams FW43 of Nicholas Latifi who took 18th.

Haas F1 Team duo Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean brought up the rear with the latter only completing five laps as the Kannapolis-Banbury outfit was forced to investigate an electronics issue on his VF-20 racer.

Tuscan GP FP2 – Selected Driver Quotes

Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+:

“It’s been a lot of fun today and I’ve enjoyed every single lap. The whole opening section with the high-speed chicanes and the second sector is just amazing and the car felt pretty good out there. I struggled with quite a lot of understeer in the first session and still in places in the second session, but it felt better. I think there’s still quite a bit of lap time to unlock, both in the car and also as a driver. This track is definitely one of the most physically demanding. We’ll only properly get to see the effects of that in the race distance, but even today, I could feel it and it’s going to be tough for everyone on Sunday. It’s also quite unforgiving, with little margin for error and that’s how it should be.”

Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+:

“I have to say, this track is pretty intense – so fast and challenging, it’s amazing to experience. I love it! There’s no time to play around here and it’s one of the most physically demanding that I’ve driven for a while. I’ve been trying to push it to the limit today, but I think there are a few sections where I can improve. I’ve got the last sector pretty sorted, but there’s definitely more to come in the first and second sectors as Valtteri and Max were very quick through there. So, we’ve got some changes that need to be made and studying to do tonight. Hopefully we’ll improve it for tomorrow. The tyres have felt quite strong and have been behaving well, but it’s going to be difficult to look after them through those fast sections, particularly through 6, 7, 8 and 9.”

Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF1000:

“Driving an F1 car around this circuit is unbelievable. In all the fast sections it’s pretty impressive. I think it’s going to be quite a tough race, physically, as already in the long run we’ve done in FP2 the neck starts to feel it! The lack of run-off areas will also make it difficult, but I guess this is what we like as well. The first session went well but maybe where we ended up in the second one is a more realistic picture, when we struggled a bit on the hard tyre. We also need to work on the balance, as we are not really there yet. It’s all very close but I think we can make a positive step tomorrow. I am optimistic.”

Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari, SF1000:

“It was an interesting day. Mugello is a very nice track which is very enjoyable for the driver, even if it is quite brutal on tyres. I’m still not happy with the balance of the car. We are working on it and there’s still plenty to do, but it is Friday, and this is what Fridays are for. I think that there’s the potential to find a better set-up on the car and that we will find some small things. I’m confident we can improve it for qualifying.”

Daniel Ricciardo, #3, Renault F1 Team, R.S.20:

“It’s so good to drive at Mugello. On one lap it’s fun but even on the long runs, which are normally a lot slower, there’s no holding back as it’s all high-speed. Turns 8 and 9 are nearly flat out on high fuel, so it’s quick and keeps you on your toes. I felt we picked it up today quite well. There were a couple of things to improve on in the morning, but we managed that well into the afternoon session. It looks like both cars are in decent shape. The timesheets look okay and, if we put ourselves in that position in qualifying, we’d be very happy.”

Pierre Gasly, #10, Scuderia AlphaTauri-Honda, AT01:

“Overall, it was a strong Friday as we finished both sessions in the top 10. It was quite impressive and very enjoyable to drive these F1 cars on such a track with so many high-speed corners, it was very cool! I didn’t feel fully comfortable in the car, so we’ll make some changes for tomorrow to find a bit more performance and get more out of our package.”

Carlos Sainz, #55, McLaren Racing-Renault, MCL35:

“It’s been a challenging Friday. We haven’t quite managed to get the car in the sweet-spot and we’ve spent the whole day trying things and trying to achieve a better balance. At the moment we’re struggling quite a lot with the changes of direction at the rear and being able to lean on it. We’re braced for a challenging weekend, but if we manage to achieve a better balance tomorrow morning, our performance can improve considerably. We’re going to work hard tonight and try to get it better.”

You can see the full Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio Della Toscana (Tuscan GP) Ferrari 1000 2020 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1053/italy/practice-2.html

#TuscanGP FP1 Report: @ValtteriBottas quickest ahead of @Max33Verstappen. #F1

#F1 Pirelli #TuscanGP #Ferrari1000 2020 Race Preview. @F1 @MugelloCircuit