Practice report
Formula 1 French GP
French GP: Hamilton tops second practice by seven tenths
Lewis Hamilton dominated the second free practice session for Formula 1's French Grand Prix, topping the times by seven tenths of a second.
Edd Straw
Edited: Jun 22, 2018, 5:32 PM
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The Mercedes driver set the pace early on with his speed on the supersoft Pirellis but was relegated to second by Daniel Ricciardo's 1m33.243s, which was set on ultrasofts just before the halfway mark of the session.
Hamilton was one of the last to head out for a performance run on ultrasofts, but was forced to abandon that attempt while on his out-lap when the session was red-flagged after 42 minutes.
This was thanks to Sergio Perez's Force India shedding its left-rear wheel at Turn 7 and spinning onto the Mistral Straight. Perez was on the second lap of a run at the time having headed out on ultrasofts.
Hamilton headed out after the red flag on the same set of tyres and posted a 1m32.539s on his first flier, setting a particularly strong pace through the final sector.
He then had another attempt after a cool-down lap, setting the fastest middle sector of all but posting a time two tenths slower than his best.
Ricciardo held on to second place, although Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen slotted in just 0.028s slower on his ultrasoft run following the red flag.
Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen also improved after the break, briefly taking third before being shuffled back to fourth place when Verstappen improved.
That put him 0.263s faster than teammate Sebastian Vettel, who set one quick lap on ultrasofts before the red flag.
Haas driver Romain Grosjean, like Hamilton, was on an out-lap when the red flag was put out so had to abandon his first ultrasoft run.
But he leaped up to sixth, 1.160s down, after the restart.
That put him ahead of Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, who showed strong pace on the soft Pirellis early on and had headed out on ultrasofts just before the red flag.
Bottas was unable to return to the track after the restart, with the team removing the floor to investigate a water leak that kept him out of the rest of the session.
Fernando Alonso seized eighth place with three minutes remaining with a lap 1.861s off the pace.
The McLaren driver focused on using the soft Pirellis for much of the session before bolting on ultrasofts late on to jump up the order from 13th.
He then spun at Turn 4 later in the run after losing it on the exit kerb.
Kevin Magnussen took ninth place, just ahead of Pierre Gasly, with the pair among the earlier drivers to bolt on ultrasofts and both temporarily breaking into the top five.
Nico Hulkenberg, who got in one flier on ultrasofts before the red flag, was 11th, 2.528s down despite problems with the change of wind direction compromising the balance of his Renault in the first part of the session.
Carlos Sainz was just 0.019s slower than his teammate in the second Renault, slotting in ahead of the McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne.
Sauber driver Charles Leclerc and Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley completed the top 15.
Hartley's session came to a premature end with nine minutes remaining when he was told to stop after a loss of power - leading to the virtual safety car being deployed.
Esteban Ocon was 16th ahead of the two Williams cars of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin, with Perez classified 19th having posted his best time on softs before his incident.
Marcus Ericsson was unable to run as a result of damage sustained in his crash at Turn 11 during the first session of the day.
ClaDriverChassisEngineLapsTimeGapkm/h 1 
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Mercedes 27 1'32.539 227.268 2 
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull TAG 31 1'33.243 0.704 225.552 3 
Max Verstappen Red Bull TAG 24 1'33.271 0.732 225.484 4 
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari Ferrari 29 1'33.426 0.887 225.110 5 
Sebastian Vettel Ferrari Ferrari 35 1'33.689 1.150 224.478 6 
Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 30 1'33.699 1.160 224.454 7 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes Mercedes 7 1'34.156 1.617 223.365 8 
Fernando Alonso McLaren Renault 24 1'34.400 1.861 222.788 9 
Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 33 1'34.457 1.918 222.653 10 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso Honda 35 1'34.535 1.996 222.469 11 Nico Hulkenberg Renault Renault 30 1'35.067 2.528 221.225 12 Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault Renault 33 1'35.086 2.547 221.180 13 
Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Renault 28 1'35.172 2.633 220.980 14 
Charles Leclerc Sauber Ferrari 33 1'35.583 3.044 220.030 15 
Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso Honda 31 1'35.697 3.158 219.768 16 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 25 1'35.705 3.166 219.750 17 
Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 34 1'35.936 3.397 219.221 18 
Sergey Sirotkin Williams Mercedes 35 1'35.970 3.431 219.143 19 
Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 13 1'36.080 3.541 218.892 20 
Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 0
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