Leclerc leads Verstappen and Sainz in opening practice at the French Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc led the first free practice session of the 2022 French Grand Prix in Le Castellet, France.

Max Verstappen finished in second position, 0.091 seconds slower than the Scuderia Ferrari driver. Carlos Sainz finished in third position at the end of the session.

The first free practice session of the French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard started with air temperatures at 29 degrees C and track temperatures at 58 degrees C. The hot temperatures are predicted for the whole weekend with Europe in the midst of a scorching summer season..

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4), the middle range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Nyck de Vries was in Lewis Hamilton’s W13 for the first free practice session. Robert Kubica drove in place of Valtteri Bottas in this session.

The top three teams and midfield teams like McLaren F1 and Scuderia AlphaTauri have brought updates to their cars for this race.

Sainz and Kubica were the first drivers on the track with the drivers on the soft and medium compound tyres. Sainz was on top in the initial exchanges with a lap time of 1m39.577s,.

But Verstappen was quickly on the pace as he kept going faster with a lap time of 1m35.727s on the soft compound tyres to go to the top of the time charts. Sergio Pérez slotted into second position for an Oracle Red Bull Racing 1-2.

De Vries had a good opening run and slotted into fourth position behind Lando Norris. Norris experienced throttle pedal problems even as Pérez had a spin at Turn 4. George Russell and Pierre Gasly improved to fourth and fifth positions on the time charts.

With thirty minutes gone, Sainz edged Verstappen to take first position with a lap time of 1m34.268s. Alexander Albon had a good lap to take sixth position.

Verstappen reclaimed the top spot with a lap time of 1m34.021s even as he ran on the kerbs and suffered some damage. The duel is set to resume between the Red Bull Racing and Ferrari drivers. The Mercedes drivers were nearly one second off the pace in this session.

With less than fifteen minutes to go, Leclerc set the fastest lap of the session with a lap time of 1m33.930s. Verstappen was in second position and Sainz was in third position.

The Spaniard will take a ten-place grid penalty as he takes on new Power Unit components after the engine blowout in the previous race.

In the last fifteen minutes of the session, the drivers performed race simulations and there were no changes in the time charts.

Russell and Gasly rounded off the top five positions as the session ended.

2022 French Grand Prix Free Practice One Results: