Formula 1

Verstappen leads the charge in FP3 at the 2022 French GP

Mercedes still tail behind the top 2 as temperatures soar at the Paul Ricard circuit

Both Ferraris tried their absolute best, but just could not match the spectacular straight-line speed of Max Verstappen’s RB-18. Sainz, having new electronic components, even with soft compound tires, could not match the time of Verstappen who set up a time of 1:32:808 that too on medium compound tires.

Leclerc seemed to have difficulties on the hard tires, eventually spinning out on track, but kept pace behind his teammate, throughout the session. In the later half of the session, Verstappen switched to soft tires, and improved upon his previous time by another .606s to claim P1 and keep the red cars at bay.

Following the leaders, Hamilton snuck in at P4, though quite perplexed at the pace difference, despite having made strong developments to his car for this weekend. The Williams team came to surprise the whole paddock with their strong pace. Latifi this time around got the new modifications but stayed at P12, as his teammate Alex Albon secured P8.

Nevertheless, a strong session by both the drivers. In this session, it was also declared that HAAS driver Kevin Magnussen would start from the back of the grid, having taken new engine components. The Dane secured P8 in FP2 but had to settle behind in P16 in this session. Temperatures reached a high 29 degrees centigrade, as drivers checked their pace on all the different tire compounds. The complete driver standings for this session are given below:

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:32.272 23
2 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:32.626 +0.354s 14
3 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:32.909 +0.637s 20
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:33.255 +0.983s 22
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:33.293 +1.021s 25
6 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:33.376 +1.104s 18
7 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:33.505 +1.233s 18
8 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:33.558 +1.286s 19
9 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:33.669 +1.397s 16
10 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:33.751 +1.479s 19
11 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:33.788 +1.516s 17
12 6 Nicholas Latifi WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:33.841 +1.569s 16
13 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:33.869 +1.597s 18
14 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:33.872 +1.600s 20
15 24 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 1:33.911 +1.639s 19
16 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:34.031 +1.759s 23
17 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:34.122 +1.850s 18
18 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:34.177 +1.905s 20
19 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 1:34.222 +1.950s 12
20 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:34.536 +2.264s 11
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Abhishek S.

Loves long drives, sunsets and skylines (pun intended ;)). Will miss a date but not an F1 race!

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