2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix FP2 report and highlights: Bottas fastest as Verstappen stops on track and lets Leclerc shunt stop second practice early

Mercedes enjoyed a one-two in the second practice at Imola, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen went on strike, ending his session just ten minutes away. Valtteri Bottas left the fastest with 0.010s ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull’s progress was halted on Friday afternoon when Verstappen started clapping at a competitive pace, but then came to a halt when he said ‘something breaks’ ten minutes into the hour. A short period of virtual security cars followed to repair his car, and he ended up being the 14th fastest.

WATCH: Favorite Verstappen crawls to a halt in Free Practice 2 by Imola

That left FP1 leader Bottas up front again, his benchmark of 1 million 15,511 enough to beat Hamilton by soft ties by 0.010 for the FP2 supremacy. Behind them was Pierre Gasly for AlphaTauri, just 0.078 off the pace of Bottas.

Initially, Ferrari returned when Carlos Sainz finished fourth and Charles Leclerc fifth fastest – until Leclerc crashed to catch a red flag in the last corner to end the session early with three minutes left.

Either way, Leclerc still finishes ahead of sixth place, Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, who picked up a collision with Esteban Ocon in FP1, for which there was no punishment from the drivers.

The AlphaTauri rookie, Yuki Tsunoda, received a new battery and control electronics in his Honda-powered car as a precaution, and the rookie finished seventh overall – just 0.008 seconds less than Perez.

FP1: Perez-Ocon clash brings the red flags to the fore as Bottas goes fastest in Imola’s first practice

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished the fastest eighth, and his teammate Daniel Ricciardo was in 18th place, while a flying shot was removed from him for a violation of the turn on track 9. Behind Norris was the Italian racer Antonio Giovinazzi for Alfa Romeo in the P9, with his teammate Kimi Raikkonen in the 17th.

Lance Stroll of Aston Martin finished 10th in FP2, while Sebastian Vettel scored P15, and the two were split by less than four tenths.

The midfielders, Alpine, have an important weekend ahead of them to bring new parts to the Grand Prix to try and hold off the performance. Fernando Alonso drove 14-chicane late in the turn, rattling his teeth and possibly damaging the floor of his A521. He finished 13th behind 11th teammate Ocon, and among them was Nicholas Latifi, Williams.

George Russell used hard tires to secure 16th place, while his 12th place mate Latifi held on to the couch. Russell still managed to finish ahead of his raikonen, Ricciardo and both Haas drivers in his Williams, after promising to rectify his 2020 accident behind the Safety Car at this location.

Haas’ Nikita Mazepin turned twice in FP1 and crashed in the final seconds of the session – but returned in FP2 to finish 20th overall, half a second behind his 19th team-mate Mick Schumacher. Mazepin complained that he was ‘absolutely on ice’, as he struggled to get his FF-21 in hand during Friday’s sessions.

Verstappen’s retirement in the second quarter is likely to have affected Red Bull’s favorite label, but they will be back on Saturday for the third quarter and qualifying. Do not miss a minute with F1’s live coverage on Saturday morning before the battle for the pole position in the afternoon.

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