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Formula 1
French GP
F1 French GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying
Saturday's action ahead of the F1 French GP at Paul Ricard
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Ferrari heads into the race at the Le Castellet circuit on the back of two victories: Carlos Sainz took his maiden win at Silverstone, while Charles Leclerc claimed the spoils last time out in Austria.
Max Verstappen still leads the title battle, but now 38 points clear of Leclerc as the Monegasque displaced Sergio Perez from second in the standings.
Sainz's power unit fire meant he left the Red Bull Ring without any points, and now faces a 10-place grid penalty for a change in control electronics.
The Spaniard led Friday's timesheets from Ferrari team-mate Leclerc, who was fastest in FP1, while Verstappen led the Ferrari duo in Saturday's FP3.
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Good afternoon and welcome to qualifying for the French Grand Prix. We are just 15 minutes away from the start of Q1.
We're now going to grab a spot of dejeuner but shall be back in about 90 minutes' time with all the build-up to qualifying for the French GP. Bye for now.
Breaking news
It may not have been the most dramatic, but here's our round-up of that session: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-french-gp-verstappen-leads-final-practice-at-paul-ricard-/10342087/
For those of you on the edge of your seats wondering about Vettel's problem, Aston has just tweeted that there was some damage to his car and that's why he sat out the second part of the session.
It's a slightly jumbled up order, though, which means Red Bull's pace over Ferrari cannot be taken too literally, given the surprisingly impressive performance from Williams.
So, to run down the order, Verstappen headed the Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc, with Hamilton, Perez, Russell, Alonso, Albon, Norris and Tsunoda completing the top 10.
Speaking of Aston, it was not a good session for Vettel who ended up slowest and only completed 11 laps, not using the softs.
And the answer to the improvement question is basically no, unless you count Stroll going fractionally faster in the Aston Martin to jump Schumacher and move into 18th place.
Verstappen wasn't improving anyway but was not helped by a Haas not getting out of the way ahead of him. Cue a frustrated hand signal from the Dutchman.
Checkered flag
The chequered flag is now out. Will there be any late improvers?
Alonso now puts in his soft tyre time and, despite not improving in the first sector, he still climbs up to seventh, fractionally faster than Albon.
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Not exactly a ringing endorsement from Stroll on Aston's pace: "It feels terrible." Great insight there.
Meanwhile, Leclerc reports: "My tyres are dead", on his second lap on the softs. He's not sure why, but perhaps he should've read ALEX KALINAUCKAS' feature we mentioned earlier, tyre degradation historically being a problem for Ferrari here.
Stopwatch
Verstappen now lays down a marker and sets a 1m32.272s on the softs and is some 0.35s faster than Sainz to reclaim top spot.
Bottas has a big lock-up and slams across the kerbs, completely missing the corner. His push lap clearly hasn't gone to plan.
Stopwatch
Meanwhile, Sainz is having another go and goes purple in the first sector, but then doesn't improve in sector two - but it's still enough to go top, finally dislodging Verstappen's time on the mediums with a 1m32.626s.
Ricciardo is the first of those aforementioned drivers to set a time on the softs and he moves into 10th, a tenth slower than team-mate Norris in eighth.
Both Red Bulls are still in the pits and both cars are being worked on fairly extensively - with work on the rear of Verstappen's machine and major set-up changes going on with Perez's.
It's worth noting there's still some drivers yet to use the softs - notably, the Red Bulls but also the Alpines, Astons and last-placed Ricciardo.
Russell now knocks his former team down the order slightly as he moves into sixth, but is only two tenths faster than his replacement at Grove, Albon.
There's a huge kerb strike for Zhou just then in the Alfa as he runs wide out of the chicane and he asks the team to check the car to make sure there's no damage.
We had a brief yellow flag earlier, which we've still not seen a replay of, but it was supposedly caused by Hamilton.
It really is a jumbled up order at the moment as the qualifying sims begin. The Williams drivers are currently sixth and seventh with their soft tyre laps.
Both Ferraris have now completed those laps on the softs and Sainz narrows the gap to Verstappen but stays second, but he's instantly usurped by Leclerc - who goes second, 0.1s behind Verstappen.
And the answer is purple for Leclerc in the first sector!
Leclerc has now discarded those hard tyres he spun on earlier and has bolted on softs, so let's see what he manages now.
The Mercedes driver is not able to keep that momentum over the rest of the lap and he slots into third place, still 0.4s behind Verstappen's medium-tyred best.
Hamilton is now on a fresh set of soft tyres and goes purple in the first sector. At last, something of interest!
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Speaking of Tsunoda, he just has quite a moment in traffic having come charging up behind Latifi at Turn 6. "So dangerous," says the AlphaTauri driver, who is forced to go off the track in avoidance.
Gasly has just improved in the AlphaTauri to go fourth on the softs, seven tenths faster than team-mate Tsunoda on the same rubber.
So, as we reach the midpoint of the session, it's still Verstappen leading the way from Sainz, Perez, Bottas and Alonso. But with all three different compounds of tyre in use, it's impossible to read too much into these times.
Replays have just shown an almighty lock-up for Hamilton earlier in the session as his front right completely left the ground on the approach to Turn 5. It's just about the most interesting thing at this point in FP3.
But his pedalwork certainly proved to be decent as he climbs up to sixth! Sainz, meanwhile has gone purple in the opening sector but then ran wide at Le Beausset and has aborted that lap.
Pedal cam is back in action this weekend. And those in charge clearly haven't been listening to Norris as it's in the same, not especially enlightening, position as before.
A replay shows he had a complete 360 spin on the approach to the Bendor corner towards the end of the lap. He's continued but will have all sorts of dirt on his tyres.
Oh and Leclerc has gone off! Not too sure where it is among the myriad blue lines of Paul Ricard - but he was well off the track there!
Stroll has a slightly unusual complaint, saying: "I have a lot of air coming in through my visor."
As that news arrived, Sainz has gone second on his softs but is still 0.4s behind Verstappen on the mediums. Leclerc's hards attempt puts him just behind Hamilton in seventh.
Breaking news
We've got some breaking news - and it's not exactly surprising - but Sainz will indeed be starting from the back after changing more engine parts. He's joined in doing so by fellow Ferrari-powered driver Magnussen.
Hamilton now returns to the track and goes fifth, setting a very similar time to his team-mate - just 0.049s faster than Russell.
By: autosport.com
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