French Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Leclerc takes the lead

It was under scorching heat that the first free practice session of the French Formula 1 Grand Prix took place at the Paul Ricard circuit in Le Castellet. The teams took advantage of this to test their developments, notably Ferrari, Alpine, AlphaTauri, and McLaren. As for the drivers, they pushed their limits on a track where physical endurance will be put to the test throughout the weekend.

First alert after ten minutes in this session for Pierre Gasly, who reported an engine issue to his team, quickly resolved by his team. At the beginning of the session, a few track limits were crossed, notably by Sebastian Vettel or Nyck de Vries, who is replacing Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes for this first testing session.

The first yellow flag of the weekend can be attributed to Sergio Pérez, who spun at the Hotel corner. The Mexican driver finished far behind his teammate Max Verstappen, over a second away. Only 91 hundredths behind Leclerc, the Dutch driver showed, unsurprisingly, that he will be the main threat to the Monégasque driver this weekend. The Ferrari driver, with his best time, continued his momentum from his victory in Austria two weeks ago.

On the French side, Pierre Gasly had a very impressive session with the fifth fastest time. The developments on the AlphaTauri seem to be working well on his side of the garage, unlike his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who finished at the bottom of the rankings. The other Frenchman, Esteban Ocon, hasn’t found the right settings on his Alpine yet. Like Alonso, the French driver finishes in the second half of the standings.

At Mercedes, George Russell remained true to himself with a beautiful fourth place. His teammate for this session, Nyck de Vries, concluded his apprenticeship with Mercedes in ninth position. Finally, we note the impressive performance of Alex Albon who places his Williams in the Top 10.

It is important to finally note that the drivers have complained a lot about understeer, especially at the Signes and Le Beausset corners. These corners are where the tires will need to be monitored during Sunday’s race, given the strength required for the rubber to withstand in this long sequence of right turns.