Red Bull responded to Ferrari’s blistering pace on Friday as Max Verstappen demonstrated the class act of FP3 for the French Grand Prix.
Fastest for much of the session with an early lap on medium tyres, the Dutchman was briefly edged out for first place by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who will start from the back of the grid for the race at Paul Ricard due to of a motor penalty.
Charles Leclerc, winner of the Austrian Grand Prix last time out, had been second fastest to Sainz in FP2, almost half a second ahead of Verstappen, but could only manage third on Saturday as Verstappen established himself as a favorite for pole position.
On another hot and sunny summer’s day in the south of France, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell set off with noticeably different rear wings on their W13s, the younger of the Brits opting for a straighter design with less downforce while Mercedes he was striving to improve what he had been. a disappointing opening day in terms of performance.
Verstappen and Perez were among the first to do hot laps on the medium tires and Hamilton’s initial effort, on the softs with his wavy “barn door” rear wing, was the best part of two seconds below the his 2021 title rival: “1.7? Was his incredulous reaction on team radio.
Sainz and Leclerc started on the soft and hard tires respectively, their opening lap times a second apart, the latter then spinning at Turn 12, while his team-mate also had a brief moment out of the road just as news was being confirmed that the Spaniard will start on the back row of the grid due to his engine penalty, along with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen for similar reasons in another Ferrari-powered car.
Kevin Magnussen joins Carlos Sainz on the back row of the French GP grid, the Haas driver’s VF-22 equipped with a new ICE, turbo, MGU-H and MGU-K #F1.
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) July 23, 2022
As the session entered its final third, Hamilton found some pace with a first purple sector en route to P3, now less than half a second over Verstappen even with a lock. Leclerc, now on the soft tyres, leapfrogged Sainz to take second, a tenth slower than the Red Bull.
Verstappen’s early time still held the benchmark, but only until Sainz set a 1:32.626 as the Red Bulls went out on soft tires for the first time in the session. As soon as he did, it was two purple sectors and one green for the World Champion to return to the top of the timing.
At the other end of the scale, there were more problems for Aston Martin as Sebastian Vettel’s session was cut short by floor damage, he and team mate Lance Stroll taking the last two places in the standings, as the Williams upgrades were promising, both Alex Albon. and Nicholas Latifi showing potential to reach Q2 later at least.
time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:32.2722 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 0.354s3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 0.637s4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 0.983s5 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1.021s6 George Russell Mercedes 1.104s7 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1.233s8 Alex Nor Albon McLaren 1.233s8. Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1.479s11 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1.516s12 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1.569s13 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1.597s14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Racing 1.600s15 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo Racing 1.639s. Aston Martin 1.963s20 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 2.264s