One key question ahead of tomorrow’s race is around tyre degradation and whether it’s going to be an issue. In this regarding, the third free practice session for the 2022 French Grand Prix was very important, ahead of the qualifying session which takes place later today.
The track temperature was hot, hot, hot at 49 degrees Celsius, as Saturday at the French Grand Prix was officially under way. Sergio Perez, after only managing limited running in FP2 yesterday, was the first car out on track. Both Red Bull cars were out on track early, with Max Verstappen joining Perez, who set the early pace, with a 1:33.628, but the Dutchman was on his first quicker effort and went fastest with a 1:32.837.
No sign of the Ferraris in the first 20 minutes, as Red Bull and Mercedes’ early involvement on track was justified by the need to find answers after Friday’s practice sessions. Another driver still in the garage was Lando Norris, who enjoyed a fine Friday in the upgraded McLaren. Lewis Hamilton’s higher downforce “wavy” rear wing didn’t appear to be giving him the straight-line speed he hoped, as he was 1.7 seconds off the pace set by Max Verstappen.
We then had our first Ferrari sightings of the day: Carlos Sainz went straight up to second on the soft tyre, but Charles Leclerc, apparently simulating longer runs on the hard tyre, lost control and spins off at Turn 12. The Maranelo team started the final free practice session for the French Grand Prix at the Paul Ricard circuit on the hard tyre while Red Bull opted for the mediums indicating opposing strategies for tomorrow’s race. With just over 30 minutes into the final practice session at Paul Ricard and it was Max Verstappen’s Red Bull topping the charts with Carlos Sainz 0.4s behind.
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It had been a session a little short on action so far, but Lewis Hamilton then put in a notable lap time for Mercedes: he went third, which was a big improvement despite remaining almost half a second behind Max Verstappen’s leading time. We also had both Ferrari F1-75 s out on track on soft tyres, as Charles Leclerc’s first attempt at a flying lap on soft tyres was a decent one, but he couldn’t get within a tenth of Max Verstappen, whose best effort came on the mediums. Carlos Sainz improved on his previous best effort but it was only good enough for third.
It looked like we would see more action from the Red Bulls and Ferrari cars in the closing stages of this session and it was heating up very nicely ahead of this afternoon’s pole position shootout!
An engine penalty for Sunday, but very fast this Saturday: Carlos Sainz found more pace in his Ferrari and went fastest with a 1:32.6, 0.182s ahead of Verstappen. But talking of the Dutchman, he was back out on fresh soft tyres of his own. And the Spanish driver’s lead didn’t last long. For the first time today we see Max Verstappen on softs and he delivered an ominous warning to his rivals.
Plenty of changes to the Red Bull car overnight and Max Verstappen reaps the benefits, fastest in final practice by 0.354 from Carlos Sainz, who will drop to the back of the grid with Ferrari engine penalties.
Charles Leclerc finished third ahead of Lewis Hamilton – while Sergio Perez was once again slow in the other Red Bull.
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