Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe
Live text
Formula 1 French GP

F1 French GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying

Saturday's updates from Formula 1's French GP weekend at Paul Ricard

Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri AT02

Live Text

Sort by

Due to the red flag disruption it is already time for the final Q1 runs. Latifi, Raikkonen, Mazepin and Stroll with work to do to avoid joining Tsunoda fot an early qualifying exit.

Stopwatch
Hamilton, also on his second timed effort in Q1, moves up to second place with a 1m31.237s to go 0.236s off Verstappen.

With a second go at it, Leclerc improves to take P11 and move directly ahead of Ferrari team-mate Sainz. It drops Latifi into the Q1 knockout spots along with Raikkonen, Mazepin and Stroll.

Leclerc's lap certainly wasn't what he was hoping for as the polesitter in Monaco and Baku is down in P16. Elsewhere, Stroll had his lap time deleted for Turn 6 track limit naughtiness.

Stopwatch
No such trouble for Verstappen on his first lap in Q1, as he goes fastest with a 1m31.001s. Perez slots into second place, with Bottas third and Hamilton fourth.

Leclerc, the first driver to set a time, met a big queue of traffic approaching the final two corners but managed to find a way through it without too much trouble but it didn't help his lap time.

Every driver, aside from Tsunoda, is out on the track so things are about to get very busy after these out-laps/warm-up laps/gee-up laps.
Lights green
Right, here we go again for Q1.

Due to the early red flag nobody had set a lap time in the session, so it is effectively a complete reset with 14m19s of Q1 to go. The session will restart at 15:13 local time - so in about 30 seconds.

Tsunoda hops out of his car as he accepts his fate as the first driver out in Q1. He also dropped out in Q1 at Imola due to a crash - not a great record to be collecting.

Quote

"No gear, no gear, I can't get first gear," Tsunoda radios to his team. His AlphaTauri F1 car doesn't want to go any further and that is his afternoon done already.

The F1 rookie driver took too much kerb at Turn 1 and spun around on the exit, coming to a stop with a nudge against the tyre barrier on the left-hand side of the track.

Red flag

...or not as there is a red flag for Tsunoda who has crashed. That's a disaster for the AlphaTauri driver.

No hanging around for most of the grid in Q1 with everyone out on track apart from the Mercedes and Alpine drivers - first timed laps coming up....

 

Watch out for track limits at Turn 6, it was a common problem for drivers in FP3 earlier today, with 10 lap times deleted in total for exceeding track limits there.

Lights green

Here we go - Q1 is underway - Gasly, Giovinazzi, Raikkonen, Russell, Tsunoda, Mazepin and Schumacher all out early.

Sun

A quick check on the conditions: It is cloudy with the sun peeking through but there is no chance of rain this afternoon and the air temperature is a pleasant 28.4oC currently.

In fact, F1 qualifying at this track for the past two races (remember we didn't race here last year due to COVID-19) has been very familiar: Hamilton on pole, Bottas P2, a Ferrari in P3 (Vettel in '18 and Leclerc in '19) and Verstappen in P4.
If anything, Hamilton's team-mate Bottas has been the bigger challenge to Verstappen so far this weekend. The under-pressure Finn also has a solid qualifying record here, taking a front-row place alongside Hamilton in both '18 and '19.

So, what to watch out for in qualifying? This track has been a home from home for Hamilton and Mercedes since the French GP returned to the F1 calendar in 2018, with the British driver taking pole position and winning the race in both '18 and '19. But - and a big but - Hamilton hasn't looked on the ultimate pace all weekend and slipped back to fifth place in final practice.

Verstappen ended FP3 a whopping 0.747s faster than Bottas at the top of the times - but, as always, take those lap times with a pinch of salt as it is just practice.

15 minutes to go until the start of Q1 of qualifying for the French GP, after an intriguing trio of practice sessions at Circuit Paul Ricard, which saw Verstappen wrestle the advantage over the two Mercedes drivers.

Good afternoon one and all - who is ready for some F1 qualifying action? Well, you are in luck.
 
That's all from us for now. We'll be back in just under 90 minutes to bring you the build-up to what promises to be an exciting qualifying session. Thanks for following along and see you soon.
Here's your full FP3 report as an on-form Verstappen brought his A-game: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-french-gp-verstappen-beats-bottas-to-top-spot-in-fp3/6585241/
Ferrari then appears to be leading the midfield once again, but between Sainz in third and Leclerc 11th is a swarm of drivers that will be ready to pick up the ball and run with it if there's any Ferrari finger trouble. Norris was an impressive three tenths quicker than Alonso in the best of the Alpines, who just shades Ocon, Gasly and Ricciardo in tenth.
Even if Mercedes can't close the gap to Ferrari, Bottas will be pleased that he's continued to shade Hamilton - the seven-time world champion is a subdued fifth in the FP3 standings, behind Sainz and Perez.
There we have it - Verstappen utterly dominant in FP3, putting in a warning sign to Mercedes with that rather impressive gap. Can the Black Arrows repurpose the so-called 'magic' button to give them something out of the blue for qualifying? They may need it...
Checkered flag
The chequered flag comes out, and third-place man Sainz finishes a lap that was good enough for P7 had it not been immediately struck off for track limits.
Leclerc pits from P11 in this session, which means there will be only one Ferrari in the top 10. But both Alpines and McLarens are there, along with Gasly's AlphaTauri. Which of them will be disappointed come qualifying in the scramble to make Q3?
As we say that, Vettel has switched back to softs and improves to P14 on a 1m33.200s, while Tsunoda improves to a 1m32.900s which is swiftly deleted for track limits.
Looking down at the tail end of the field, Russell is again showing good form in the Williams and is currently P15. Beneath him and potentially concerned about Q1 elimination are Tsunoda, Vettel, Latifi and the Haas drivers.
Five minutes remain in the session. Verstappen is back in the garage and sitting pretty on what amounts to a rather comfortable advantage.
Hamilton goes again, but can't improve and posts a 1m32.570s before coming back to the pits. Much work for Mercedes to do between sessions we reckon, as that's a yawning gulf to Verstappen.

By: Jake Boxall-Legge

Published: