French Grand Prix 2022: Lewis Hamilton to sit out first practice with Nyck de Vries set for Mercedes drive

Lewis Hamilton be replaced by Mercedes reserve driver Nyck de Vries in the first practice session at the French Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion has elected to skip FP1 at Le Castellet with the team required to give at least two sessions to their rookie driver during the course of the season. Ad/> Mercedes have allowed their drivers to pick the race at which they give up a session, with Hamilton opting to miss the opening laps of the Paul Ricard Circuit.

French Grand Prix'It's a personal choice' — Why Hamilton will wear mask at French GPA DAY AGO George Russell, his team-mate, will give up a session later in the season. De Vries won the 2019 Formula 2 Championship, and last year became the 2020-21 Formula E world champion. /> The 27-year-old Dutchman has been a reserve and test driver at Mercedes since the start of 2021.

He made his Formula 1 practice debut at the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this season, taking Alex Albon's place at Williams in FP1. After a slow start to the season while battling significant performance problems, Mercedes have shown better race speed of late. Hamilton has finished third in three consecutive races, followed home at the last race in Austria by Russell.

The pair sit fifth and sixth in the Drivers' Championship standings, with Hamilton 19 points behind his younger team-mate, and Toto Wolff is pleased with the progress his team are making, though knows further improvements must be made. «We scored three podiums in the first seven races, and we have now achieved four in the last four,» the Mercedes team principal said. «I'm pleased with the momentum we are building, and it reflects the mammoth effort of the team.