Mercedes remained at the top in F1 French GP in third practice session with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Following all the dramas of Canadian GP still going on, on Friday of F1 French GP at Circuit Paul Ricard off the track, the on track situation remained the same with Mercedes heading the way in both the free practice sessions ahead of Ferrari.
It was same in FP3 with Bottas keeping his lead by just the 0.041s with a 1m30.159s from Hamilton (1m30.200s) but the two nearly half a second up on the Ferrari duo, who were led by Leclerc (1m30.605s) in third and Sebastian Vettel (1m30.633s) fourth.
Even though Mercedes drivers had a good run, the drivers did have some off moments – more to understand the limits of the car. The Ferrari drivers, meanwhile, were good in the first two sectors but they lost out all of it in the final one.
The Red Bull Racing duo were next up with Max Verstappen (1m31.538s) in fifth from Pierre Gasly (1m31.599s) as McLaren remained the best of the rest with Lando Norris (1m31.654s) was seventh ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m31.802s).
It was a late quick lap from the Australian to get inside the Top 10 as he pushed McLaren’s Carlos Sainz (1m31.887s) to ninth and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m31.943s) to 10th. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m32.023s) was 11th after a late improvement.
Alfa Romeo seemed in a good position with Antonio Giovinazzi (1m32.171s) in 12th ahead of Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon (1m32.178s) and Haas duo of Romain Grosjean (1m32.385s) and Kevin Magnussen (1m32.400s) in 14th and 15th.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez (1m32.491s) was 16th with Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat (1m32.540s) 17th as the Russian braces for a heavy penalty for an engine change. The other Racing Point of Lance Stroll (1m32.678s) was 18th ahead of the two Williams duo.
It was Robert Kubica (1m33.902s) in 19th from George Russell (1m39.987s) after the the British only managed four laps with an apparent engine issue after he reported of lack of power before pitting in.
French GP: Hamilton leads FP1 from Bottas by 0.069s at Paul Ricard
French GP: Bottas quickest in FP2 as Hamilton under investigation