» Status quo for Mercedes in FP1

Formula 1 returned for its second stint in Europe, with the practice action kicking off at Le Castellet’s Circuit Paul Ricard. The transatlantic journey seemed to have had no ill effects for the Mercedes-AMG team, which set the early pace in preparation for the French Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton narrowly edged teammate Valtteri Bottas to top spot on the timesheets.

The pair was split by just 0.069 seconds in the final reckoning, with their closest challenger coming in the form of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc whose best lap was almost four-tenths of a second slower than Hamilton’s best time of 1:32.738.

Leclerc’s teammate Sebastian Vettel secretly wed long-time childhood friend Hanna Prater ahead of this weekend’s race and perhaps seemed to be suffering some post-nuptial effects given his best lap time was over a second off the pace and only good enough for fifth-fastest. The German complained about his SF90’s front-end handling as the team experimented with front wing updates.

The Ferraris were split by the Red Bull Racing Honda of Max Verstappen, while his teammate Pierre Gasly was sixth-fastest in the sister RB15. Both drivers suffered spins during the session, along with Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.

It was a promising session for McLaren, whose drivers Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr placed seventh- and eighth-fastest respectively. The team also announced that it had agreed to terms with engine provider Renault to share the services of Sergey Sirotkin as their reserve driver.

The factory Renault team showed relatively improved pace thanks to a raft of upgrades, with Daniel Ricciardo placing ninth-fastest and Nico Hülkenberg twelfth. Both drivers, however, reported smoke in the cockpit, which it later emerged was caused by the floors of their cars scraping on the track. Hülkenberg’s skidblock was replaced during the session, while Ricciardo had his running disrupted when he called into the pits amidst concerns he had damaged his car after violently clipping a kerb.

It was not a happy start to his home event for Romain Grosjean, who was mired at the bottom of the timesheets with only nine laps to his name after his Haas Ferrari sprung a water leak. The Frenchman finished behind the two Williams of Nicholas Latifi – running in place of George Russell in this session – and Robert Kubica.

FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE 2019 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 1
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport W10	1:32.738		21
2.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport W10	1:32.807	+ 0.069	20
3.	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari SF90	1:33.111	+ 0.373	21
4.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing RB15	1:33.618	+ 0.880	20
5.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF90	1:33.790	+ 1.052	22
6.	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull Racing RB15	1:34.091	+ 1.353	20
7.	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team MCL34	1:34.110	+ 1.372	23
8.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team MCL34	1:34.261	+ 1.523	26
9.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team RS19	1:34.540	+ 1.802	18
10.	Alexander Albon	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda STR14	1:34.804	+ 2.066	25
11.	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point F1 Team RP19	1:34.809	+ 2.071	21
12.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault F1 Team RS19	1:34.810	+ 2.072	25
13.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point F1 Team RP19	1:35.063	+ 2.325	22
14.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda STR14	1:35.326	+ 2.588	24
15.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team VF-19	1:35.410	+ 2.672	19
16.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing C38	1:35.522	+ 2.784	22
17.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing C38	1:36.102	+ 3.364	22
18.	Nicholas Latifi	ROKiT Williams Racing FW42	1:37.147	+ 4.409	25
19.	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing FW42	1:37.172	+ 4.434	27
20.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team VF-19	1:37.620	+ 4.882	9