Verstappen tops final practice at the French Grand Prix

Max Verstappen topped the final practice session at the 2022 French Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished behind the Dutch driver.

Verstappen was in a league of his own as he had the measure of both Scuderia Ferrari drivers ahead of qualification.

The third and final free practice session at the Circuit Paul Ricard started with air temperatures at 28 degrees C and track temperatures at 51 degrees C.

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.

Sergio Pérez led Kevin Magnussen and Lance Stroll on to the track and set the first timed lap of 1m33.628s on the medium compound tyres. Verstappen displaced his team-mate from the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m32.837s,

Esteban Ocon slotted into third position after a very poor second practice session. Lewis Hamilton with his first lap went fourth, 1.7 seconds slower than Verstappen.

The Oracle Red Bull Racing team signalled their intent by sending their drivers out early and immediately taking the top two spots on the time charts.

With twenty minutes of the session gone, Sainz went to second position on the soft compound tyres, 0.409 seconds slower than Verstappen. Sainz will start at the back of the grid doe to power unit penalties. The Spaniard will be joined by Magnussen at the back with the same penalties.

Leclerc on the hard compound tyres was in ninth position. Hamilton had the high downforce wing and is much slower than the Red Bull drivers on the straights. Russell with the low downforce wing had a big deficit of 1.4 seconds to Verstappen.

With thirty minutes to go the order was Verstappen, Sainz, Pérez, Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso, Magnussen, Lando Norris, Hamilton, Zhou Guanyu in the top ten positions.

The two Scuderia AlphaTauri drivers, Piere Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda, improved to fourth and eighth positions respectively.

Hamilton went third fastest, 0.447 seconds slower than Verstappen. Finally some glimmer of hope for the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team which has struggled in the practice sessions.

With twenty minutes to go, Leclerc was finally on the soft compound tyres and slotted into second position, 0.101 seconds slower than Verstappen.

Sainz on his flying lap took third position, 0.364 seconds slower than Verstappen. The Dutch driver set his fastest lap on the medium compound tyres.

The two Williams Racing team drivers, Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi, had a good run on the soft compound tyres to take sixth and eighth positions respectively.

Sainz on his second lap on the soft compound tyres went fastest with a lap time of 1m32.626s. The Spaniard has looked in good form this weekend but will have to scythe through the field from last position to score points.

With less than ten minutes to go, Verstappen on his first flying lap on the soft compound tyres set the fastest lap of the session with a 1m32.272s, 0.354 seconds faster than Sainz.

The session ended with Verstappen on top ahead of the two Ferrari drivers, Sainz and Leclerc. Hamilton, Pérez, Russell, Alonso, Albon, Norris and Tsunoda rounded off the top ten positions.

2022 French Grand Prix Third Practice (FP3) Results: