French GP, Practice One: Lewis Hamilton ahead of upgraded rivals
Hamilton 0.069s ahead of Bottas as Mercs trade fastest times; Ferrari and Red Bull testing upgrades; McLaren ahead of Renault
Friday 21 June 2019 15:24, UK
Lewis Hamilton enjoyed the perfect start to his French GP weekend by topping Practice One, as Mercedes' rivals trialled new upgrades.
Hamilton, the championship leader, was absent from Paul Ricard's 'media day' but impressively marked his track arrival on Friday, beating Valtteri Bottas by 0.069s as the team-mates and title rivals traded fastest laps.
Hamilton gained more than four tenths in the final sector, while his 1:32.738 was almost a second quicker than the best time in this session a year ago.
Charles Leclerc was Mercedes' closest challenger in third for Ferrari, 0.3s off the pace, but the Scuderia appeared to be focusing more on analysing their new upgrades rather than one-lap pace.
Ferrari have brought several new aerodynamic evolutions to France, most notably a revised front wing, and the under-pressure team were regularly swapping the new and old parts throughout the morning.
Sebastian Vettel, who will receive an update on his Canada penalty after his team meet with stewards on Friday afternoon, was fifth in the other Ferrari.Vettel was behind Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull team were running a new Honda engine - the Japanese outfit's second upgraded Power Unit of the season.
Verstappen finished 0.8s behind Hamilton, but half a second ahead of team-mate Pierre Gasly, who was sixth.
McLaren impressively topped the midfield with Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz seventh and eighth, and the team are hoping for a double top-10 finish this weekend to strengthen their hold on fourth in Constructors' Championship.
Daniel Ricciardo was ninth for Renault, another team who are debuting upgrades. Ricciardo has exclusive use of a new 'ahead of schedule' Spec Three engine, while both the Australian and team-mate Nico Hulkenberg have aero updates.
Haas will have been disappointed with their session with Kevin Magnussen only 15th and Romain Grosjean, who had reliability issues, 20th and behind both Williams drivers.
Nicholas Latifi, replacing George Russell in the Williams, finished ahead of Robert Kubica.
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