France, FP1: Bottas sets the pace in first practice for French Grand Prix

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas went quickest in the opening practice session for this weekend FIA Formula 1 French Grand Prix beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton by three tenths of a second, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third ahead of team-mate Sergio Pérez.

The opening phase of the one-hour session saw teams split between the C2 hard and C3 medium compound tyre with Verstappen medium-shod Carlos Sainz leading the way for Ferrari in the opening exchanges before Verstappen stamped some authority on proceedings with hard tyre time of 1:34.139.

As the session reached its mid-point Mercedes sent its drivers out on soft tyres and Hamilton immediately jumped to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:33.783. Verstappen them headed out on softs and his opener on the C4 compound was just under a tenth off the Briton.

Earlier in the session Valtteri Bottas had retreated to the Mercedes garage after running hard over the track limits-delineating kerbs in Turn 2 and shipping some damage to the front wing of his car.

He returned top the fray just before the switch to soft rubber and when he moved to the red-walled tyres he moved up to first place, setting a lap of 1:33.488 to go 0.335s clear of Hamilton and 0.432 ahead of Verstappen.

Verstappen might have gone quicker on his second run but after posting a purple middle sector he ran wide in Turn 11 and abandoned the lap.

Fourth place in the session went to Pérez, who ended up a more than secven tenths of a second adrift of Bottas. Esteban Ocon who this week signed a new three-year contract with Alpine, took fifth with a late flier on softs, while McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo finished sixth ahead of Fernando Alonso in the second Alpine. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was eighth quickest in the morning session ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda in the second AlphaTauri.

Elsewhere, there were problems for Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel spinning off in Turn 11 and hitting the barriers with the rear if his car, and for Haas’ Mick Schumacher who went off at Turn 3 and touched the barriers with the right side of his car. Sainz, too, had a spin losing the rear of his Ferrari in Turn 2 and going off backwards into the run-off area.