F1 Grand Prix practice results: Sainz fastest in French GP on Friday

His teammate Charles Leclerc was fastest in FP1 but Sainz set the fastest lap of the day in FP2, with Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen in third.

French Grand Prix FP1 results: Leclerc fastest from Verstappen

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	23	1'33.930			223.902
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	19	1'34.021	0.091	0.091	223.686
3	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	21	1'34.268	0.338	0.247	223.100
4	George Russell	Mercedes	25	1'34.881	0.951	0.613	221.658
5	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	21	1'34.979	1.049	0.098	221.430
6	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	21	1'35.174	1.244	0.195	220.976
7	Lando Norris	McLaren	21	1'35.232	1.302	0.058	220.841
8	Alex Albon	Williams	24	1'35.414	1.484	0.182	220.420
9	Nyck de Vries	Mercedes	23	1'35.426	1.496	0.012	220.392
10	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	21	1'35.660	1.730	0.234	219.853
11	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	21	1'35.676	1.746	0.016	219.816
12	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	19	1'35.810	1.880	0.134	219.509
13	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	21	1'35.828	1.898	0.018	219.468
14	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	24	1'35.851	1.921	0.023	219.415
15	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	22	1'35.875	1.945	0.024	219.360
16	Mick Schumacher	Haas	19	1'36.022	2.092	0.147	219.024
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	22	1'36.104	2.174	0.082	218.837
18	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	26	1'36.127	2.197	0.023	218.785
19	Robert Kubica	Alfa Romeo	19	1'36.332	2.402	0.205	218.319
20	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	23	1'37.043	3.113	0.711	216.720
View full results

What happened in French GP Free Practice 1?

Verstappen set the bar at 1m34.991s, running soft tyres from the start of the session, half a second clear of teammate Sergio Perez (who suffered a big spin at Turn 3 early on and later straight-lined a chicane) and 0.83s clear of Leclerc at the halfway point.

Verstappen lowered his time to 1m34.346s, but that was almost immediately beaten by Sainz – who will take a grid penalty after his Austrian GP engine failure – with 1m34.256s.

Top spot then became a straight Verstappen v Leclerc fight. Verstappen set 1m34.021s, despite a big moment as he understeered over the kerbs at the exit of Beausset and damaged his floor edge.

But Leclerc topped that by 0.091s with 1m33.930s, despite a poor middle sector where he lost two tenths of a second. Sainz stayed third, over three tenths off the pace, ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, Pierre Gasly’s updated AlphaTauri and Perez.

Nyck de Vries subbed for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes in this session and was ninth fastest, half a second off Russell. Robert Kubica was also in for Valtteri Bottas at Alfa Romeo, and was 0.656s off teammate Zhou Guanyu in 19^th place.

French Grand Prix FP2 results: Sainz fastest from Leclerc

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	22	1'32.527			227.297
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	22	1'32.628	0.101	0.101	227.050
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	17	1'33.077	0.550	0.449	225.954
4	George Russell	Mercedes	20	1'33.291	0.764	0.214	225.436
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	23	1'33.517	0.990	0.226	224.891
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	21	1'33.607	1.080	0.090	224.675
7	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	24	1'33.906	1.379	0.299	223.960
8	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	24	1'33.928	1.401	0.022	223.907
9	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	23	1'33.984	1.457	0.056	223.774
10	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	16	1'34.060	1.533	0.076	223.593
11	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	24	1'34.259	1.732	0.199	223.121
12	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	27	1'34.264	1.737	0.005	223.109
13	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	27	1'34.420	1.893	0.156	222.740
14	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	24	1'34.540	2.013	0.120	222.458
15	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	26	1'34.595	2.068	0.055	222.328
16	Alex Albon	Williams	23	1'34.653	2.126	0.058	222.192
17	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	26	1'34.654	2.127	0.001	222.190
18	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	26	1'34.660	2.133	0.006	222.176
19	Mick Schumacher	Haas	22	1'35.195	2.668	0.535	220.927
20	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	27	1'35.412	2.885	0.217	220.425
View full results

What happened in French GP Free Practice 2?

Leclerc set the pace after 15 minutes at 1m34.182s, as all teams ran the medium tyres from the start of the session. Verstappen beat that by 0.01s with 1m34.172s, before Sainz was the first of the frontrunners to switch to softs, unleashing 1m33.322s – highlighting a 0.85s delta between the compounds in similar track conditions.

Leclerc beat his teammate for P1 by 0.186s with 1m33.136s just before the halfway point, but Sainz responded on a second push lap with 1m32.527s. That proved to be the fastest lap of the day.

Verstappen got to within half a second of that, complaining of excessive understeer that sent him pitwards for changes ahead of his long run, before Leclerc produced 1m32.628s to reclaim a Ferrari 1-2, 0.101s down on Sainz.

Russell was best of the rest in fourth, over a quarter of a second off the pace, ahead of teammate Hamilton.

Mick Schumacher suffered a wild high-speed spin at Beausset early on, but just kept his Haas out of the wall.