French GP: Verstappen fastest in FP3 from Ferrari pair
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen led the Ferrari pair in FP3 of F1 French GP, with Carlos Sainz in second from Charles Leclerc.
It was rather somber FP3 session in F1 French GP with only one major spin involving Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc early in the session. There was another yellow flag later in the session seemingly for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, but no replays were shown.
There were some kerb moments for other drivers as well, with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas having a slightly bigger one. In the strategy game, Red Bull kept it late to go for a soft tyre run, with both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez doing so in the last 10 minutes.
Verstappen eventually topped FP3 of F1 French GP with a 1m32.272s lap as he led the Ferrari pair where Carlos Sainz (1m32.626s) was second and Leclerc (1m32.909s) in third. The Spaniard will start from back after expectedly taking new power unit elements.
Sainz took his fourth Internal Combustion Engine, Turbo Charger, MGU-H and MGU-K, which was same for Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, with the Dane to start from the back too. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (1m33.255s) was in a respectable fourth.
He managed to stay ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez (1m33.293s) who was fifth from Mercedes’ George Russell (1m33.376s), as Alpine’s Fernando Alonso’s (1m33.505s) late lap put him seventh ahead of Williams’ Alexander Albon (1m33.558s) who put himself in a handsome spot in eighth.
The Top 10 was rounded out by McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m33.669s) and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m33.751s), as after the late lap from Alonso pushed McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo to 11th. Having struggled on Friday, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi found a sweet spot to be 12th.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was 13th, a bit down from his Friday pace, with Alfa Romeo pair of Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in 14th and 15th. Haas’ Magnussen was 16th from Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who continued to have a low-key weekend.
The other Haas of Mick Schumacher was in the same spot as Ocon to be 19th behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel was 20th on the medium tyres as a floor damage kept him in the garage for most part of the session.
