The Friday exercises were shortened to one hour each in 2021 instead of the usual 90 minutes. Verstappen led both, ahead of Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) in FP1 and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo in FP2.
What happened in Free Practice 1?
Verstappen set the benchmark for mid-size tires at 1: 06.511 minutes before the soft tire rides started by half. Carlos Sainz turned his Ferrari around Turn 1 and blocked the pit lane when Bottas tried to ride on his new soft tires.
With Softs, Hamilton finished P1 with 1: 06.390s, which was quickly beaten by Bottas – by 0.004s. Hamilton was then fastest again on his second push lap with 1: 06.332 minutes.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly turned the lead with a lap of 1: 06.166 minutes, just before Verstappen set his session best of 1: 05.910 minutes. Bottas was on a faster lap, but ran too far in the last corner, lost a bit of time and canceled his lap anyway because of route limits.
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Gasly stayed second, a quarter of a second behind Verstappen, with Hamilton in third, 0.054 seconds ahead of Bottas. Yuki Tsunoda finished fifth in the second AlphaTauri.
Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon’s Alpines finished sixth and seventh respectively, ahead of Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sainz. Sergio Perez turned his Red Bull into Turn 4 and was only 13th fastest.
Robert Kubica drove Kimi Raikkonen’s car this session and made an early turn on Turn 3, but he was still faster than Haas’s Nikita Mazepin.
What happened in Free Practice 2?
In FP2, Verstappen set the starting pace with 1:06.722 minutes on hard tires when raindrops began to fall on the dry track. Alonso beat this time on medium-sized tires with 1: 06.651 minutes.
With rain stains and a strong tailwind, Perez blocked and ran far into Turn 3, as did Verstappen and Hamilton. Meanwhile, Sainz spun into the gravel and escaped at Turn 4.
Hamilton then took the lead, putting his 1: 06.358s on hard tires until Verstappen beat him with a 1: 06.192s when the risk of rain subsided.
Bottas started his soft tire run early, but couldn’t beat the Verstappen lap. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll jumped in 1: 06.192 seconds on soft rubber to the top of the time, which was beaten by team-mate Sebastian Vettel in 1: 05.934 minutes.
Hamilton was next to try Softs, climbing to the top with 1: 05.796s before Ocon beat that at 1: 05.790s by 0.006s.
Hamilton was again fastest with 1: 05.335 minutes, but this lap was canceled because the track limit was exceeded in the last corner, so that Verstappen’s next lap of 1: 05.412 minutes turned out to be the fastest of the day.
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Ricciardo was second fastest – three tenths behind Verstappen’s pace – ahead of Ocon, Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Lando Norris (McLaren), Stroll, Perez and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo).
Bottas was only twelfth, pinched by the Ferraris, and his day got worse and worse as he spun on fresh hard tires as he left his pit box – thankfully without meeting anything or anyone. The McLaren mechanics who were in the pit lane at the time helped him reverse and re-enter.
Elsewhere, Mazepin spun on Turn 4 and returned while FP1 star Gasly had a problem with his drive unit and watched the entire session from the pit wall.
The impending rain shower never arrived, so the teams can complete their racing simulation runs up to the checkered flag.
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