Ferrari dominates at Friday’s practice sessions in advance of Sunday’s French Grand Prix.
LE CASTELLET, France—Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc dominated Friday practice in their Ferraris for Sunday’s French Grand Prix at the Paul Ricard Circuit, with Sainz, Jr. posting a 1:32:527 fastest time. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third. Verstappen had his mechanics work on the floorboard that cracked when he ran wide and struck a curb in the opening session. The team had it ready when the afternoon period was set.
Leclerc was successful in the morning, just edging out Verstappen by 0.091 seconds, with Sainz Jr. in third. Nick de Vries, the Mercedes reserve driver, filled in the opening session for Hamilton and was impressive with a ninth-place finish, just behind Williams Alex Albon, who had a personal best finish of eighth.
Despite Friday’s performance, Sainz Jr. will have to serve a ten-place penalty no matter what the result of Saturday qualifying. He was over the limit on replacing his car’s power unit, which failed him at the last round in Austria.
With the weather at nearly 50 degrees Celsius on the circuit, it was a very quiet session all day long, with only a couple of spins by Mercedes George Russell in the morning, followed by Haas F1’s Mick Schumacher in the second session, who just missed the wall.
Russell ended up fourth overall, despite his earlier spin, with teammate Lewis Hamilton in fifth. McLaren’s Lando Norris had a slow start until late in the afternoon, when the Briton posted a good lap enough to take sixth for the day. Frenchman Pierre Gasly gave his home crowd something to cheer about by placing seventh in his Alpha Tauri, while Haas F1 kept their hopes going with Kevin Magnussen taking eighth. Daniel Ricciardo in his McLaren and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten.
