» Flying Finn fastest on Friday

Valtteri Bottas has stayed on top of the timesheets as Friday’s practice for this weekend’s Tuscan Formula 1 Grand Prix at Mugello drew to a close, with the Finnish driver leading a Mercedes-AMG lockout ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton.

The rollercoaster-like Mugello circuit provided plenty of action in the afternoon’s 90-minute hit-out as drivers explored the limits of the layout and their diminishing tyre grip in very hot conditions.

Bottas appeared at ease on the fast and flowing 5.2-kilometre circuit and ended up lowering his unofficial lap record posted in FP1 earlier in the day. He was the only driver to lap under the 1m17s barrier, clocking a 1:16.989 as he unlocked nearly a second of pace compared to his morning’s benchmark pace. Teammate Hamilton was two-tenths of a second back.

The Red Bull Racing Hondas shadowed the Mercedes-AMG frontrunners with Max Verstappen and teammate Alexander Albon claiming third- and fourth-fastest. Verstappen was less than four-hundredths of a second slower than Hamilton’s best time, while Albon was a rather hefty seven-tenths off the Dutchman’s pace as he battled with his car’s sometimes inconsistent handling.

Continuing the Noah’s Ark look on the timesheets, the Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon were an encouraging fifth- and sixth-quickest. This was despite the Enstone squad predicting that its RS20 package might not be well-suited to the Mugello Circuit’s characteristics.

Renault’s chief rivals for ‘best of the rest’ honours, McLaren, had a troubled session by contrast. Lando Norris dropped his MCL35 at Turn 3 and spun into the wall, bringing out the red flags and ending his session. Teammate Carlos Sainz was left to complete the team’s program, but the pair wound up 13th and 14th fastest.

Also getting into grief was Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen, who tangled late in the session at Turn 1. Pérez had just exited the pits and clipped Räikkönen’s right-rear corner as they tried to occupy the same piece of tarmac. Räikkönen was sent spinning into the gravel trap, while Pérez was later handed a one-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race for his role in causing the collision.

Pérez- hot on the heels of his departure from Racing Point being announced – finished the session seventh-fastest, with Räikkönen in an encouraging ninth place. Splitting the pair was Italian Grand Prix winner Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri Honda, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc rounded out the top ten.

Leclerc and teammate Sebastian Vettel – who finished P12, just 0.098 seconds slower – both had spins at the Correntaio corner during the session, while Vettel was forced to stop his SF1000 at the end of the session when its power unit appeared to cut out. Sandwiched between them was Vettel’s future Aston Martin Racing teammate Lance Stroll in the now-current Racing Point guise.

Daniil Kvyat was 15th-fastest in the second AlphaTauri, ahead of George Russell’s Williams Mercedes.

The bottom four places on the timesheets were claimed by Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and the two Haas Ferraris of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean – the latter missed much of the session while an electrical issue was resolved.

FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAN PREMIO DELLA TOSCANA FERRARI 1000 2020 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 2
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:16.989		28
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:17.196	+ 0.207	29
3.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:17.235	+ 0.246	25
4.	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:17.971	+ 0.982	28
5.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:18.039	+ 1.050	32
6.	Esteban Ocon	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:18.115	+ 1.126	29
7.	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:18.198	+ 1.209	34
8.	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:18.244	+ 1.255	30
9.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:18.385	+ 1.396	38
10.	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:18.400	+ 1.411	27
11.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:18.462	+ 1.473	37
12.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:18.498	+ 1.509	39
13.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:18.651	+ 1.662	32
14.	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:18.658	+ 1.669	9
15.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:18.736	+ 1.747	33
16.	George Russell	Williams Racing FW43	1:18.843	+ 1.854	33
17.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:18.944	+ 1.955	35
18.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Racing FW43	1:18.983	+ 1.994	31
19.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:19.113	+ 2.124	32
20.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:19.257	+ 2.268	5