VALTERRI, HAMI BURN RUBBER IN IMOLA PRACTICE

Imola (Italy), April 16: Mercedes drivers Valterri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton steered their way through two red flags on Friday to the best times of the first practice session for the EmiliaRomagna Grand Prix.

Bottas was quickest round the legendary Imola circuit but was less than one-tenth of a second faster than his teammate.

Similarly there was a cigarette paper between Hamilton, who won the opening race in Bahrain, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the young pretender to the Briton’s world crown.

Verstappen was in Bahrain and third. second Bottas —