Max second fastest in France FP1

Published on 22 July 2022 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen set the second quickest time in the opening practice session of the French Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc was quickest around the Circuit Paul Ricard, with his Ferrari team mate completing the top three.

A couple of teams opted to run ‘rookies’ in this weekend’s FP1, with Nyck de Vries driving the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica steering Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo.

As predicted, the conditions at Le Castellet are warm, with ambient temperatures above the 30 degree mark with track temperatures reaching 55 degrees. At the start of the session, Max is one of the early pace setters with his first timed lap propelling him to first place. He does so on the soft Pirelli compound.

Around the halfway mark, Max continues to improve his lap times, still on used softs. Although the reigning champion produces a quicker lap, he cannot enjoy P1 for much longer as Carlos Sainz goes quickest soon after.

After a quick visit to the pits, Max continues his run on the Pirellis he’s used all of the session thus far. Despite the age of the rubber, he goes quickest with two purple and a yellow sector.

With fifteen minutes to go, Leclerc clocks the quickest time of the session, thus demoting Max to P2 in front of the other Ferrari of Sainz. Max does head out for a final run on used soft tyres with six minutes left on the clock, but he does not improve his best effort from earlier in the session.

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Results first free practice France: