Mercedes 1-2 in opening Imola F1 practice

Valtteri Bottas turned a lap of 1m16.564s to pip his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.041s to top opening practice for the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix F1 race at Imola.

With time on the clock out, Red Bull’s  Verstappen was on a hot lap… but then the red flag flew out as Mazepin spun off (his 2nd of the session) and crashed into the barriers at the pit lane exit.

Replays showed that the Russian got a tiny bit wide, put two wheels into the gravel and couldn’t correct the spin, sliding off into the barriers.

Verstappen ended up third quick just 0.058s behind Bottas.

Another angle of Mazepin’s Crash during FP1 at Imola #F1 #ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/HHKGiKXQyZ

— FthOne (@FthOne_) April 16, 2021

Charles Leclerc was 4th quick in the #16 Ferrari while Pierre Gasly rounded out the top-5 for AlphaTauri. Carlos Sainz was 6th quick in the #55 Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel continued to embarrass himself down in 14th place 1.4s off the pace while his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll was 8th, 0.925s behind Bottas. We do not know what has happened to Vettel, but clearly he appears to be washed up.

There was another red flag for the session when Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez touched.

Practice 1 Results