Last Updated: 14/08/20 11:36am
Valtteri Bottas’ car clips the wing of a bird during P1 at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas led Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes returned to the head of the order in opening practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Five days after being beaten for the first time this season at Silverstone by Red Bull, Mercedes were back on top on a very warm Friday morning at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Max Verstappen, last Sunday’s impressive winner, was third and nearly one second adrift of Bottas’ pacesetting 1:16.785 time.
Hamilton finished just 0.039s behind his Mercedes team-mate in second place.
Meanwhile, struggling Sebastian Vettel enjoyed a more competitive morning than arguably any point of the Silverstone double-header. With Ferrari fourth and fifth, the German was within two hundredths of a second of Charles Leclerc as he ran a new SF1000 chassis for the first time.
Romain Grosjean was an unexpected sixth quickest for Haas, ahead of the returning Sergio Perez in the lead Racing Point.
More to follow…