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:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:33.930		23
2	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:34.021	+0.091s	19
3	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:34.268	+0.338s	21
4	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:34.881	+0.951s	25
5	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:34.979	+1.049s	21
6	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:35.174	+1.244s	21
7	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:35.232	+1.302s	21
8	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1:35.414	+1.484s	24
9	19	Nyck De Vries	#N/A	#N/A	1:35.426	+1.496s	23
10	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:35.660	+1.730s	21
11	24	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:35.676	+1.746s	21
12	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:35.810	+1.880s	19
13	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:35.828	+1.898s	21
14	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:35.851	+1.921s	24
15	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:35.875	+1.945s	22
16	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Haas F1 Team	1:36.022	+2.092s	19
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:36.104	+2.174s	22
18	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:36.127	+2.197s	26
19	88	Robert Kubica	POL	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:36.332	+2.402s	19
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:37.043	+3.113s	23