Ferrari leads Free Practice Friday at the 2022 French GP
It was Leclerc who lead FP1 as teammate Sainz led FP2. Both the RedBull and Mercedes seemed to be off their expected pace.
What would have seemed to be a favourable circuit for the Mercedes resurgence has turned into a Ferrari domination in France. Both RedBull and Mercedes seemed to have struggled and were a bit off their expected pace. Let’s take a look at the highlights.
FREE PRACTICE 1
Charles Leclerc’s French Grand Prix weekend was off to a good start as he beat championship rival and current defending world champion Max Verstappen to the fastest time in opening practice at Circuit Paul Ricard. The Ferrari driver clocked a 1m 33.930s on the soft compound tyre to finish just 0.091s ahead of the Red Bull since, Verstappen lost around two tenths of a second running wide at Turn 11 on his best lap.
Carlos Sainz seemed quite off the pace by 0.3s in third, the Spaniard facing a tricky weekend ahead after Ferrari fitted a new control electronics to his F1-75 that triggers a 10-place grid penalty. Mercedes were inside a second of the fastest time, courtesy of their upgrades and them put to use by George Russell, with the team’s reserve Nyck de Vries borrowing Lewis Hamilton’s car for FP1 and ending up ninth, half a second further back.
Considering this was Nyck’s first run in the W13, it definitely caught some eyes. If it didn’t already seem that Nyck is not getting his chance, it now seems even more that he should be on for that seat. This was the first time in Hamilton’s career – which hits 300 Grand Prix weekends in France – that he has given up his car for an FP1 session. The rules mandate each driver must do so at least once this season and the seven-time world champion, who watched the action from the Mercedes garage alongside boss Toto Wolff, chose this weekend to step aside.
It was Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly in P5 impressing home crowd with a strong showing after receiving much deserved upgrades that they last received in Imola. Teammate Tsunoda was back in P18 though, almost 2 seconds behind the leader. Sergio Perez slotted in at P6 showing the lack of RedBull’s pace and himself as he spun around in T4. Mclaren was next, the team getting the most upgrades in France, although they didn’t run them in FP1 as they tested back to back with Danny Ric in P10.
FREE PRACTICE 2
Ferrari asserted dominance in FP2 as Leclerc’s teammate Sainz led the 2nd FP session with a time of 1:32.527. Leclerc was P2 almost 0.1s off while Verstappen was 0.5s off the pace. Almost all teams went first with the low-fuel soft compound setup which is the fastest. The teams then got the drivers on the long run setup with high fuel and hard compounds to judge how long the tyres would last in the long run.
Mercedes continued their upward trajectory with George Russell fourth best 0.76s off the pace as teammate Lewis Hamilton got his first run at the French Grand prix, having allowed F2 driver Nyck DeVries to test in his car with the number 19. Lando Norris, running McLaren’s sizeable update, was sixth – one second off the pace – with his team mate Daniel Ricciardo half a second back in ninth.
Between them was the heavily updated AlphaTauri of home favourite Pierre Gasly and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, who made a big step in form from FP1 to FP2. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez left it late to do his soft tyre run but it wasn’t spectacular, the Mexican slotting into 10th, a second behind his team mate Verstappen.
