F1 French GP: Bottas heads Mercedes 1-2 from Verstappen as Vettel crashes
With Mercedes looking to bounce back in the 2021 title fight following ♈a night🐈mare pair of races in Monaco and Baku, it made the perfect start to the weekend at Paul Ricard as Bottas headed a 1-2.
Bottas posted a 1m33.448s to set the pace by 0.335s from Hamilton as the Finn bids to return to form after a difficult start to the season, which has resulted in specul🐟ation ramping up regarding his fu🦋ture at Mercedes.
Bottas’ best time came after he had sustained front wing damage when he ran wide at Turn 2 early in the sessi🌱on. The incident prompted Mercedes sporting director Ron Meadows to complain to FIA race director Michael Masi about the aggressiveness of🧸 the kerbs.
Behind the Mercedes duo, F1 championship leader Max Verstappen was unhappy with the balance in hi𒉰s Red Bull car on his way to setting the third-fastest time, over four-tenths down on Bottas.
Fresh from his first victory for Red Bull, Sergio Perez was fourth-quickest to ensure the Mercedes and Red Bull cars came two-by-two, while Esteban Oconꦑ was a strong fifth having just committed his future to Alpine on a new deal that was announced ahead of his home race.
There were some encouraging signs of improvement for Daniel Ricciardo, who finished sixth for McLaren, ahead 🌳of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and AlphaTauri dꦬriver Pierre Gasly.
Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda completed the rest of the top-10 for McLaren and AlphaTauꦅri.
Both Ferrari drivers finished outside of the top 10 as Charles Leclerc took 11th, while teammate Carlos Sꦍainz ruined his set of Soft tyres with a huge spin at Turn 2, leaving him only 16th in the order.
Following his breakthrough podium for Aston Martin last tiꦰme out, Sebastian Vettel endured a tough morning after spinning backwards 💛into the barriers at Turn 11.
The four-time world champion re-emerged for the final 15 minutes of the session aft𓄧er damaging his rear wing but꧂ finished 15th in the FP1 order, just behind teammate Lance Stroll.
Formula 2 driver Roy Nissany set the slowest time ꧋as he mad🔥e his latest FP1 outing for Williams, finishing up behind the Haas duo of Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, who tapped the Turn 2 barriers on his out-lap.
Click here for full results from opening practice at the 2021 F1 French Grand Prix.
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