Verstappen tops opening practice for GP of Turkey

A late lap of top with a 1m 35.077s by Max Verstappen, which included some dicey overtakes, turned the fastest lap on a slippery track in opening practice for the GP of Turkey in Istanbul. His Red Bull Honda teammate Alex. Albon was a credible second 0.241s behind and ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in third 0.430s behind.

Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri and Sebastian Vettel in the 2nd Ferrari rounded out the top-5.

Alexander Albon of Thailand was 2nd quick (Photo by Murad Sezer-Pool/Getty Images)

As for Mercedes, they were saving tires,  sandbagging and not even trying. Valtteri Bottas wound up ninth and Lewis Hamilton a lowly P15.  Track temps were cold  and the teams only have seven sets of the soft red tires as opposed to the usual eight sets, hence the decision to save them in FP1.

Valtteri Bottas – Wolfgang Wilhelm

This afternoon will also be more representative in terms of track temperatures for qualifying tomorrow, so there should be more of the soft compound tyre being used in FP2.

Practice 1 Results

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda 1:35.077 +0.000s 29
2 23 Alexander Albon Red Bull Racing Honda 1:35.318 +0.241s 27
3 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:35.507 +0.430s 26
4 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri Honda 1:35.543 +0.466s 26
5 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:35.620 +0.543s 29
6 26 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri Honda 1:36.738 +1.661s 27
7 4 Lando Norris McLaren Renault 1:37.216 +2.139s 21
8 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:37.503 +2.426s 21
9 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:37.629 +2.552s 23
10 31 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:38.428 +3.351s 23
11 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 1:38.508 +3.431s 18
12 11 Sergio Perez Racing Point Mercedes 1:38.612 +3.535s 22
13 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point Mercedes 1:39.484 +4.407s 21
14 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:40.025 +4.948s 25
15 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:40.225 +5.148s 12
16 7 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:41.035 +5.958s 23
17 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:41.854 +6.777s 21
18 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:45.156 +10.079s 20
19 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren Renault 1:46.462 +11.385s 12
20 63 George Russell Williams Mercedes 1:49.256 +14.179s 17
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