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F1 70th Anniversary GP: Bottas pips Hamilton in FP1 at Silverstone

Valtteri Bottas pipped Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton to lead opening practice for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix on Friday at Silverstone

Mercedes eased to a 1-2 finish in first practice as drivers got their first chance to sample Pirelli's softer tyre selection for the second Silverstone race weekend.

All drivers opted to complete all of their of running on the C4 tyre, which is the soft compound for this race and was not used at the British Grand Prix last weekend.

Many reported high wear on the soft compound as the track temperature rose to 45ºC during first practice.

Bottas set his fastest time of 1m26.166s on the tyre en route to the head of the timing screens on Friday afternoon, beating Hamilton by one-tenth of a second in the final classification.

Mercedes was able to dominate proceedings once again as nearest challenger Max Verstappen finished over seven-tenths of a second off Bottas' pace, taking third for Red Bull.

Verstappen did not set his first timed lap until an hour had passed in the session after a number of changes were made to his car, and had a near-miss with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc while on a hot lap.

Nico Hulkenberg led Racing Point's charge in fourth place as he finished within half a tenth of a second of Verstappen's effort, having only been confirmed this morning as racing in place of Sergio Perez, who remains positive for COVID-19.

Leclerc took fifth place for Ferrari, almost nine-tenths of a second back from Bottas' headline time, and was over four-tenths clear of team-mate Sebastian Vettel in seventh place.

Red Bull's Alexander Albon was sandwiched by the Ferraris in sixth place, but reported recurring tyre issues through the session and said he "almost crashed" at Copse while trying to improve on his fastest time.

Lance Stroll finished eighth for Racing Point, over half a second down on team-mate Hulkenberg's time, while Daniil Kvyat and Esteban Ocon completed the top 10 for AlphaTauri and Renault respectively.

Pierre Gasly took 11th in the second AlphaTauri car, but reported late in the session there was "no rubber" remaining on his left-rear tyre, again fanning concerns about tyre wear in the hot practice conditions.

McLaren failed to breach the top 10 in FP1 as Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr. finished 12th and 14th respectively, split by Haas driver Romain Grosjean.

Sainz also reported high wear, saying his tyres were "destroyed" by the end of the stint.

George Russell finished as the lead Williams in first practice, taking 15th ahead of team-mate Nicholas Latifi, while Daniel Ricciardo finish a lowly 17th for Renault.

Kimi Raikkonen ended the session in 18th place for Alfa Romeo, three-tenths of a second clear of Robert Kubica, who took over from regular team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi for the session.

Kevin Magnussen propped up the order in 20th place for Haas.

Second practice for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix will begin at 3pm BST at Silverstone.

F1 70th Anniversary GP FP1 - Results

Pos Driver Car Gap
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m26.166s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 0.138s
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 0.727s
4 Nico Hulkenberg Racing Point/Mercedes 0.776s
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 0.896s
6 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 1.114s
7 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1.332s
8 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 1.373s
9 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 1.487s
10 Esteban Ocon Renault 1.535s
11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1.541s
12 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1.680s
13 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1.742s
14 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 1.972s
15 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 2.004s
16 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 2.060s
17 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 2.345s
18 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 2.489s
19 Robert Kubica Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 2.794s
20 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 3.153s


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