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Charles Bradley

F1 Grand Prix practice results: Sainz fastest in French GP on Friday

His teammate Charles Leclerc was fastest in FP1 but Sainz set the fastest lap of the day in FP2, with Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen in third.

French Grand Prix FP1 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 23 1'33.930     223.902
2 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 19 1'34.021 0.091 0.091 223.686
3 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari 21 1'34.268 0.338 0.247 223.100
4 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes 25 1'34.881 0.951 0.613 221.658
5 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 21 1'34.979 1.049 0.098 221.430
6 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 21 1'35.174 1.244 0.195 220.976
7 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 21 1'35.232 1.302 0.058 220.841
8 Thailand Alex Albon Williams 24 1'35.414 1.484 0.182 220.420
9 Netherlands Nyck de Vries Mercedes 23 1'35.426 1.496 0.012 220.392
10 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 21 1'35.660 1.730 0.234 219.853
11 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 21 1'35.676 1.746 0.016 219.816
12 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 19 1'35.810 1.880 0.134 219.509
13 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 21 1'35.828 1.898 0.018 219.468
14 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 24 1'35.851 1.921 0.023 219.415
15 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 22 1'35.875 1.945 0.024 219.360
16 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 19 1'36.022 2.092 0.147 219.024
17 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas 22 1'36.104 2.174 0.082 218.837
18 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 26 1'36.127 2.197 0.023 218.785
19 Poland Robert Kubica Alfa Romeo 19 1'36.332 2.402 0.205 218.319
20 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 23 1'37.043 3.113 0.711 216.720

What happened in French GP Free Practice 1?

Verstappen set the bar at 1m34.991s, running soft tyres from the start of the session, half a second clear of teammate Sergio Perez (who suffered a big spin at Turn 3 early on and later straight-lined a chicane) and 0.83s clear of Leclerc at the halfway point.

Verstappen lowered his time to 1m34.346s, but that was almost immediately beaten by Sainz – who will take a grid penalty after his Austrian GP engine failure – with 1m34.256s.

Top spot then became a straight Verstappen v Leclerc fight. Verstappen set 1m34.021s, despite a big moment as he understeered over the kerbs at the exit of Beausset and damaged his floor edge.

But Leclerc topped that by 0.091s with 1m33.930s, despite a poor middle sector where he lost two tenths of a second. Sainz stayed third, over three tenths off the pace, ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, Pierre Gasly’s updated AlphaTauri and Perez.

Nyck de Vries subbed for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes in this session and was ninth fastest, half a second off Russell. Robert Kubica was also in for Valtteri Bottas at Alfa Romeo, and was 0.656s off teammate Zhou Guanyu in 19th place.

French Grand Prix FP2 results: Sainz fastest from Leclerc

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari 22 1'32.527     227.297
2 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 22 1'32.628 0.101 0.101 227.050
3 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 17 1'33.077 0.550 0.449 225.954
4 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes 20 1'33.291 0.764 0.214 225.436
5 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 23 1'33.517 0.990 0.226 224.891
6 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 21 1'33.607 1.080 0.090 224.675
7 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 24 1'33.906 1.379 0.299 223.960
8 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas 24 1'33.928 1.401 0.022 223.907
9 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 23 1'33.984 1.457 0.056 223.774
10 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 16 1'34.060 1.533 0.076 223.593
11 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 24 1'34.259 1.732 0.199 223.121
12 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 27 1'34.264 1.737 0.005 223.109
13 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 27 1'34.420 1.893 0.156 222.740
14 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 24 1'34.540 2.013 0.120 222.458
15 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 26 1'34.595 2.068 0.055 222.328
16 Thailand Alex Albon Williams 23 1'34.653 2.126 0.058 222.192
17 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 26 1'34.654 2.127 0.001 222.190
18 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 26 1'34.660 2.133 0.006 222.176
19 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 22 1'35.195 2.668 0.535 220.927
20 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 27 1'35.412 2.885 0.217 220.425

What happened in French GP Free Practice 2?

Leclerc set the pace after 15 minutes at 1m34.182s, as all teams ran the medium tyres from the start of the session. Verstappen beat that by 0.01s with 1m34.172s, before Sainz was the first of the frontrunners to switch to softs, unleashing 1m33.322s – highlighting a 0.85s delta between the compounds in similar track conditions.

Leclerc beat his teammate for P1 by 0.186s with 1m33.136s just before the halfway point, but Sainz responded on a second push lap with 1m32.527s. That proved to be the fastest lap of the day.

Verstappen got to within half a second of that, complaining of excessive understeer that sent him pitwards for changes ahead of his long run, before Leclerc produced 1m32.628s to reclaim a Ferrari 1-2, 0.101s down on Sainz.

Russell was best of the rest in fourth, over a quarter of a second off the pace, ahead of teammate Hamilton.

Mick Schumacher suffered a wild high-speed spin at Beausset early on, but just kept his Haas out of the wall.

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