Hamilton pays the penalty

MERCEDES Formula One world championship leader Lewis Hamilton smashed the track record in the Turkish Grand Prix practice session yesterday, while Red Bull rival Max Verstappen was out of sorts and off the pace. Verstappen was second in the morning session at Istanbul Park, 0.425 seconds behind his Mercedes rival, and only fifth in the afternoon, when he was slower than Mexican teammate Sergio Perez. Hamilton will have a 10-place grid penalty for tomorrow’s race, after exceeding his season’s engine allocation, but Mercedes hope he will be able to make up places, at

a track with good overtaking opportunities. The seven-time world champion lapped, with a best time of one minute 23.804 seconds, after leading in the morning with 1:24.178. Verstappen, two points behind Hamilton, with seven races remaining, was 0.635 slower in the second session on a clear afternoon.

“We've got a little bit of a balance mishmash at the moment,“Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports.

“And the circuit is a lot grippier than it was last year, and we’re just a little bit out of the window with Max on set-up.

“It’s going to be a busy night tonight, burning the midnight oil, with the engineers

and, no doubt, back in Milton Keynes as well.

“We know we’ve got a good car, so it’s just a matter of getting into that window. I don't think we hit that today,” said Horner. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc ended the day second. and 0.166 seconds off Hamilton’s time.

Red Bull were debuting a one-off, mostly white, livery – to honour departing engine partner Honda, on what would have been the Japanese manufacturer’s home race weekend at their Suzuka circuit.

That race was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic and replaced by Turkey. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas, who will be expected to make the most of the

Briton’s penalty, was fourth and third, respectively, on a track with much more grip than last year’s slippery surface. Spaniard Carlos Sainz was fifth for Ferrari in the morning, but he will start tomorrow’s race from the back of the grid, due to penalties resulting from a new upgraded power unit in his car.

Esteban Ocon lapped sixth fastest for Alpine on hard tyres in the morning, with McLaren's Lando Norris on pole at the previous round in Russia, and leader – until he made the wrong tyre call, when rain fell late in the race, in seventh.

Norris, was sixth in the afternoon, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso in seventh. | Reuters