Charles Leclerc reignited his title challenge by returning to winning ways for Scuderia Ferrari at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, but 2021 F1 world champion Max Verstappen still carries a 38-point lead into the 12th round of the 2022 Formula 1 season, the French Grand Prix, as track action began today at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet with the first free practice session.
After the scorching temperatures we’ve enjoyed in the United Kingdom, the warm weather continues in France and the drivers were in for a testing one as a result. The track temperature was 55 degrees Celsius and it could reach 60 this weekend! There are 15 turns for the drivers to navigate, and two DRS zones are present – one ahead of turn one and one into turn eight.
As expected, Scuderia Ferrari Moneagsque driver Charles Leclerc tested the new F1-75 floor in this FP1, while his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz ran rakes, but but not the new floor, in order to gather data which the Maranello team will analyse and compared with the data collected by the Monegasque driver with the new version.
We are yet to see any serious lap times in the first ten minutes, but it was the world championship leader Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who were setting the early pace. The Dutchman’s 1:35.727 was 0.4s better than Perez in second. The Mexican driver then managed a good save, as he went through 360 going off turn three and was just able to keep it out of the barriers. Max Verstappen remained in a league of his own in the early running: the Red Bull driver improved to 1:34.991, which was more than half a second clear of his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez in second.
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Charles Leclerc was 0.8s back from the Dutchman in third, with George Russell narrowly behind in fourth. At the same time it was confirmed that Carlos Sainz will take a grid penalty for this weekend race following his engine failure last time out in Austria. The Spanish driver will go down a minimum 10 places on the grid – yet Scuderia Ferrari are likely to change more elements than just his Control Electronics.
With 15 minutes to go until the end of FP1, it’s was the turn of the other Ferrari car to take top spot away from Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc became the first car to under 1:34 as he went almost a tenth quicker than the Dutchman.
Charles Leclerc remained at the top of the standings after the first practice session for the French Grand Prix with a 1:33.930 lap, followed by Max Verstappen (+0.091) and his Maranello team-mate Carlos Sainz (+0.338).
All three concluded their laps on the soft tyres, with the Red Bull garage keen to amend an issue on Verstappen’s car, ahead of FP2 and a busy weekend. George Russell was the only one of the top six who finished on mediums, in fourth position (+0.951) followed by one of the drivers taking to a home track Pierre Gasly (+1.049).
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