Mercedes dominated Friday Practice at 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as Valtteri Bottas topped both sessions ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
After just 0.041 seconds separated the Mercedes duo in a hectic FP1 session which saw Haas’ Nikita Mazepin spin twice, Bottas eventually topped the day by just 0.010s from Hamilton come the end of FP2.
Red Bull meanwhile endured a trying day with a variety of different issues prematurely concluding running across both sessions for their drivers, which left sister team – AlphaTauri third quickest with Pierre Gasly at the end of the day.
Now, here is a full roundup of everything that unfolded across both practice sessions.
FP1
In a FP1 session fraught with technical difficulties in coverage, timings and communication, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen were first out with the former setting the early pace.
Haas’ Nikita Mazepin picked up from where he finished his disastrous debut in Bahrain by spinning out of the second Rivazza just six minutes into the session.
Several drivers then traded fastest laps in a frantic opening half hour despite various wide moments, including from Yuki Tsunoda who ran wide at Tamburello en route to finishing slowest in this session.
Come the halfway mark, Gasly was the surprise pacesetter with a 1m 17.470 ahead of Carlos Sainz and Hamilton.
Bottas soon afterwards posted a 1m 17.396 to go top just minutes before a 11 minute red flag was shown, following a collision at Variante Villeneuve between Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon due to a loss of radio communication between both drivers and teams.
Perez was left with a left-rear tyre failure as he spun on the exit whilst Ocon pulled over with a broken front right tyre.
Stewards investigated the incident post session but judged it as a racing incident due to “unfortunate miscommunication of timing” owing to the technical issues affecting team radio throughout the session as Ocon was on a slowdown lap as Perez arrived on a flier.
Once the session resumed, Sainz went quickest with a 1m 17.197 only to be displaced by Hamilton by 0.355 seconds on soft tyres, before the Brit was then bettered by Max Verstappen who posted a 1m 16.622.
Ultimately, Bottas topped the session at the death with a 1m 16.564 as just 0.058 split the Finnish driver from Hamilton and Verstappen who rounded out the top three.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth quickest ahead of Gasly and Sainz who had both posted a 1m 16.888, with Gasly classified ahead of Sainz by virtue of having set that lap time first.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was seventh quickest ahead of Lance Stroll as Williams enjoyed a surprise FP1 result, with Nicholas Latifi finishing ninth quickest and George Russell was 11th with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo sandwiching the pair in tenth.
The session however ended under red flag conditions after Mazepin suffered a second spin at Rivazza
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1m 16.564 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.041 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.058 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.232 |
| 5 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 0.324 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.324 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 0.893 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.925 |
| 9 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 1.175 |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 1.205 |
| 11 | George Russell | Williams | + 1.302 |
| 12 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | + 1.319 |
| 13 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 1.371 |
| 14 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 1.420 |
| 15 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 1.494 |
| 16 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 1.664 |
| 17 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.796 |
| 18 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 2.259 |
| 19 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 2.916 |
| 20 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 3.217 |
FP2
Williams’ George Russell was first driver out on track as several cars headed out in the opening two minutes, with Leclerc setting the initial pace on mediums with 1m 17.076 ahead of Bottas.
Hamilton backed out at the end of his first flier but managed to go top with 1m 16.940 on his next attempt, just before Red Bull’s Max Verstappen retired at the pit exit with a suspected driveshaft failure.
Bottas soon proceeded to set the session topping time after just 13 minutes as he posted a 1m 15.551 on medium tyres, with Ricciardo the only other driver to not improve his time on softs as the Aussie found himself a lowly 18th quickest.
Hamilton initially struggled to find time on the softs but eventually found himself second quickest and 0.010s off Bottas’ pace, with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly rounding out the top three a further 0.068s behind the Brit.
Ferrari were fourth and fifth quickest with Sainz and Leclerc with the latter just 0.040s quicker than Sergio Perez’s best lap time, as Tsunoda, Lando Norris, Giovinazzi and Stroll who rounded out the top ten.
Verstappen failed to head back out for any further laps and missed the soft tyre and race simulation runs, which were prematurely ended with three minutes left following a crash for Leclerc at Rivazza after he lost the rear and suffered a snap of oversteer on correction.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1m 15.551 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.010 |
| 3 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 0.078 |
| 4 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.283 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.820 |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.860 |
| 7 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.868 |
| 8 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.934 |
| 9 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 0.962 |
| 10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.186 |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.266 |
| 12 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 1.272 |
| 13 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 1.284 |
| 14 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 1.448 |
| 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 1.541 |
| 16 | George Russell | Williams | + 1.628 |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | + 1.722 |
| 18 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 1.730 |
| 19 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.799 |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 2.306 |
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