French GP: Chares Leclerc tops FP1

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc went fastest in the first practice session of the Grand Prix weekend in France, going quicker than Max Verstappen by just nine-hundredths of a second.

Leclerc is looking to build on a strong performance in Austria last time out, having shown great race pace to beat Max Verstappen in Spielberg, and he’s started on the right foot at Paul Ricard, though it is clearly very tight between the two leaders in the championship.

Indeed, less than a tenth of a second would separate the pair on the soft tyres, whilst Carlos Sainz ran third quickest, proving slower than Leclerc by a little over three tenths.

The Spaniard is already up against it this weekend, meanwhile, with Ferrari opting to change components in his power unit – perhaps no surprise after the fiery end to his Grand Prix in Austria – and so he faces a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race, with Ferrari potentially going to decide they’ll change even more and send Sainz to the very rear of the field.

Behind the top three, George Russell was fourth-fastest in the Mercedes ahead of Pierre Gasly, who appeared to show some promising signs at the wheel of the AlphaTauri, which is decked out with brand new aero parts, whilst Sergio Perez had a spin on his way to recording the sixth-fastest time.

Lando Norris, again in a car with plenty of upgrades, would go seventh-fastest in the McLaren ahead of Alex Albon in the Williams, whilst Nyck De Vries – in the Mercedes instead of Lewis Hamilton for this session only – went ninth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the other McLaren to complete the top 10.