F1 French GP: Max Verstappen tops final practice with ease
23rd July 2022Red Bull and their defending world champion, Max Verstappen, topped the last practice session ahead of qualifying for the French Grand Prix.
How final practice unfolded…
As the pit exit light went green, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was the first driver to venture out onto the French circuit, Paul Ricard, ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll. Naturally, the Mexican driver was one of the first drivers to set a lap time with a 1:33.628 on the Medium compound tyres.
However, this time wasn’t at the top for long as Perez’s teammate, Max Verstappen, climbed to the top of the timing board with a 1:32.837.
After nearly 15 minutes of FP3 action, Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton found himself in P4, in the early runs, 1.7 seconds off the pace of Verstappen who has improved his time at the top of the timing board by three-hundredths of a second. This was down to his rear wing, which was a higher downforce spec, as his straight line speed was significantly slower than the Red Bull pairing by 1.49 seconds.
When the session closed in on its 20-minute mark, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the only driver to venture out on the white-ringed hard compound tyres while the rest of the field were mixed between the red-ring softs and yellow-ringed mediums.
In the latter stages of the practice session, Hamilton significantly improved his lap time – despite the larger rear wing, and moved up to P3, 0.4 seconds off the pace of Verstappen. However, Leclerc soon jumped up to second-place – one-tenth away from Verstappen – when the Monegasque driver completed his first soft-tyre run.
As the session closed in on its final minutes, Verstappen extended his lead at the top of the timing board after the Dutchman secured a quick 1:32.272 lap, 0.354 seconds faster than Sainz who was in P2.
That’s it for the article: F1 French GP: Max Verstappen tops final practice with ease! Who do you think has the edge going into qualifying? Let us know in the comments!
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