Bottas fastest of Hamilton in the disturbed first training

Lewis Hamilton finished second, Max Verstappen third for Red Bull – the top three in just 0.058 seconds.

In bright conditions in Imola, the majority of the pack set off early in the hour-long session, with several riders enjoying their time in the top spot during a frenzied opening of 15 minutes.

Ocon set the initial fastest time at 1: 26.246 seconds, but the benchmark was quickly lowered as the drivers explored the 3-mile track on the hard tires.

Valtteri Bottas’ 1: 20.345 lap was the first real flying lap of the FP1, but it was soon beaten by Kimi Räikkönen of Alfa Romeo before the Mercedes driver regained the top spot with 1: 19.312 seconds.

Perez then lowered first place to 1: 19.205 minutes before Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. beat it with 1: 18.764 seconds on the white-walled hard rubber.

Hamilton briefly finished first in 1: 18.257 seconds on the same tires before Sainz improved again as his run continued with two new fastest laps that reduced the P1 time to 1: 17.682 after 15 minutes – just before AlphaTauris Yuki Tsunoda made a short detour into the gravel of the Tamburello chicane.

After a 10-minute break in action, Pierre Gasly was the fastest with a time of 1: 17.470 minutes and after another 10 minutes Bottas moved up again to first place with a time of 1: 17.396 minutes – just before Hamilton in the Alta variant crossed the grass.

Sainz then finished first with a time of 1: 17.296 minutes, with the session marked in red after the clash between Ocon and Perez.

The Red Bull stopped at the exit of the Villaneuve chicane, its rear left tire blown off the rim, and Ocon’s Alpine stopped further down with the right front of its car damaged. The stewards asked both drivers to explain the incident after the first RP.

After a delay of just over 10 minutes, the session resumed and drivers switched to the soft tires for a series of faster laps when the first RP ended.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Hamilton took first place with a time of 1: 16.892 minutes, just under 10 minutes before the end of the session, before Verstappen’s flying lap on the softs brought the Red Bull leader in first place with a time of 1: 16.622 minutes.

It looked like Verstappen was sticking to the top of the first RP – after he last trained in the season opening race in Bahrain – but the Black Arrows riders took one last breath and downgraded him to third place.

Hamilton’s late flyer initially brought him back to first place before Bottas, who took pole for the F1 visit to Imola in 2020, hit him by 0.041 seconds with a time of 1: 16.564 minutes.

Charles Leclerc missed much of the race in the first half of the session when Ferrari was investigating a problem with his car, but he drove a strong lap late to finish fourth and drop Gasly to fifth.

Sainz eventually finished sixth ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, with Nicholas Latifi, who jumped into the gravel after oversteering as he exited the first Rivazza corner after the session restart – ninth for Williams ahead of McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Perez and Ocon finished in 16th and 17th place in the final standings when their clash ended their respective runs.

A second red flag brought out after the checkered flag was waved after Nikita Mazepin exited the second Rivazza corner – the last real corner of the track – and bumped the left front portion of his front wing against the wall near the pit lane entrance .

At the same point where he had spun for the first few laps of the session, the Haas driver dipped his right side wheels over the curb and into the gravel that spun him and sent him against the wall.

F1 Emilia Romagna GP – FP1 Results