Bottas on top as collisions dominate practice

Valtteri Bottas beat Lewis Hamilton to top spot in practice for the Tuscan Grand Prix as Lando Norris crashed out and Sergio Perez collided with Kimi Raikkonen.

On Formula One’s inaugural visit to Mugello for a grand prix, Mercedes took control of the weekend with Bottas fastest in both sessions.

The Finn, who trails Hamilton by 47 points in the standings, saw off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the first action before beating Hamilton by 0.207 seconds later in the day.

Ferrari, who celebrate their 1,000th grand prix here, might have been encouraged by Charles Leclerc finishing third in the opening session.

But Leclerc dropped to 10th in the next running, 1.4 sec behind Bottas, with Sebastian Vettel 12th in the sister Ferrari.

The first of two redflag periods arrived when Norris was involved in the opening major incident of the weekend.

The 20-year-old caught the gravel on the exit of the right-handed third bend, sending him out of control and into the wall. He sustained significant damage to the front of his McLaren but was unharmed in the highspeed crash.

Norris, who finished fourth at the Italian Grand Prix last weekend, returned to the pits on the back of the scooter as the action was stopped to deal with the Briton’s wounded car.

The running was then suspended for a second time as Sergio Perez, who this week discovered he will be replaced by Vettel in 2021, hit Raikkonen.

Perez was exiting the pit lane but clumsily locked his front-right tyre under braking and tagged Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo.

The force of the impact sent Raikkonen spinning into the gravel. The Finn gesticulated with his right hand as Perez limped back to the Racing Point garage after damaging his car.