Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two as drivers struggled for grip in the first practice session for the French Grand Prix.
After the first 90 minutes of running at Paul Ricard, Hamilton’s best effort was half a second off the best time seen in the same session last year. Surface temperatures on the heavily resurfaced track reached almost 50C during the session.Hamilton shaded team mate Valtteri Bottas by less than seven-hundredths of a second. Charles Leclerc was closest of their rivals as Ferrari assessed the new upgrade package for their SF90.
Many drivers found the soft compound tyres wilted rapidly in the heat. Both Red Bull drivers suffered spins. Max Verstappen was the quicker of the pair, but almost nine-tenths slower than Hamilton, followed by Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly.
McLaren had another of their promising Friday mornings. Lando Norris ended the session less than two-hundredths of a second shy of Gasly, but complaining that his tyres were destroyed. Carlos Sainz Jnr made it a ‘best of the rest’ one-two for the orange cars.
Daniel Ricciardo put his Renault fastest, though both he and team mate Nico Hulkenberg incurred fines for speeding in the reshaped pit lane. Alexander Albon, the only Honda driver still using the old-spec power unit, completed the top 10.
A water leak confined Romain Grosjean to the pits for most of the session and left him at the bottom of the times behind the two Williams drivers. These were led by reserve driver Nicholas Latifi, though his best effort was a full second away from the next car.
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| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’32.738 | 21 | |
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’32.807 | 0.069 | 20 |
| 3 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1’33.111 | 0.373 | 21 |
| 4 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1’33.618 | 0.880 | 20 |
| 5 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’33.790 | 1.052 | 22 |
| 6 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Red Bull-Honda | 1’34.091 | 1.353 | 20 |
| 7 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Renault | 1’34.110 | 1.372 | 23 |
| 8 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren-Renault | 1’34.261 | 1.523 | 26 |
| 9 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1’34.540 | 1.802 | 18 |
| 10 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’34.804 | 2.066 | 25 |
| 11 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’34.809 | 2.071 | 21 |
| 12 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’34.810 | 2.072 | 25 |
| 13 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point-Mercedes | 1’35.063 | 2.325 | 22 |
| 14 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’35.326 | 2.588 | 24 |
| 15 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’35.410 | 2.672 | 19 |
| 16 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’35.522 | 2.784 | 22 |
| 17 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1’36.102 | 3.364 | 22 |
| 18 | 40 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1’37.147 | 4.409 | 25 |
| 19 | 88 | Robert Kubica | Williams-Mercedes | 1’37.172 | 4.434 | 27 |
| 20 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’37.620 | 4.882 | 9 |
First practice visual gaps
Lewis Hamilton – 1’32.738
+0.069 Valtteri Bottas – 1’32.807
+0.373 Charles Leclerc – 1’33.111
+0.880 Max Verstappen – 1’33.618
+1.052 Sebastian Vettel – 1’33.790
+1.353 Pierre Gasly – 1’34.091
+1.372 Lando Norris – 1’34.110
+1.523 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’34.261
+1.802 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’34.540
+2.066 Alexander Albon – 1’34.804
+2.071 Sergio Perez – 1’34.809
+2.072 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’34.810
+2.325 Lance Stroll – 1’35.063
+2.588 Daniil Kvyat – 1’35.326
+2.672 Kevin Magnussen – 1’35.410
+2.784 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’35.522
+3.364 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’36.102
+4.409 Nicholas Latifi – 1’37.147
+4.434 Robert Kubica – 1’37.172
+4.882 Romain Grosjean – 1’37.620
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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2019 French Grand Prix
- Hamilton: French GP pace defied team’s predictions
- Ricciardo accepts one of his two last-lap penalties
- Raikkonen not surprised by Ricciardo’s penalty: “We all know the rules”
- Mercedes explain why the Virtual Safety Car cost Bottas four seconds
- Hamilton wants a “complete neutral”, not Wolff, running F1
stefano (@alfa145)
21st June 2019, 11:54
What is happening at Sauber I wonder
Chaitanya
21st June 2019, 11:58
What happening with Giovinazzi that far more important.
bosyber (@bosyber)
21st June 2019, 12:07
They wrote on twitter they were evaluating updates, we could hope they were running below the max pace to do that consistently. Or they are now solidly the 9th team again @alfa145?
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
21st June 2019, 11:58
Ignoring Romains time, look at how far Williams are off the pace. That does not look good.
bosyber (@bosyber)
21st June 2019, 12:25
Four and a half percent off the fastest time @nullapax, not great (but, they expected they’d be off as far as on barcelona, so maybe not surprising); let’s see if Russell gets them any closer.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
21st June 2019, 12:01
Well, a really clumsy first practice. Many driver errors, but Mercedes clearly ahead. Ferrari’s obviously trying different aerodynamic solutions of their front wing and so far it’s hard to evaluate how much they could gain. Red Bull seemed surprisingly off the pace despite their engine upgrade, but still, it’s only a first practice, they could gain a tenth or two towards the qualifying. And a decent performance by McLaren. They are definitely on track to be more consistent and competitive, but I hope their race pace will be better than in Canada (despite their problems, the Renaults were clearly faster and could even hold back the Mercedes for some time).
bosyber (@bosyber)
21st June 2019, 12:09
It might be that the new Honda PU has still been turned down for the 1st running, and we see Red Bull add pace later on.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
21st June 2019, 12:56
Yes, that’s a valid reason. Still remember how Mercedes struggled with their new spec two weeks ago. But I don’t see Honda gaining much on one lap, rather their race pace could be interesting.
Nitzo (@webtel)
21st June 2019, 13:03
One shouldn’t take a lot of inferences from FP1 but it pains to see Kubica set a time that slower than Latifi !!
Gurgle
21st June 2019, 13:46
I see it as quite positive – Robert is less than a tenth slower than the current F2 championship leader.
If anything it shows hes doing very well, especially considering hes driving ‘with one arm’ and ‘too old’ as gets casually thrown around.
Gulp
22nd June 2019, 0:06
Less than a tenth though. That’s a win for an apparent one armed oap invalid to match the current F2 leader…