F1: Leclerc nips Verstappen in opening French GP practice

Ferrari maintained their slight recent advantage over Red Bull in opening practice for the French GP F1 race at Paul Ricard, the 12th round of the 2022 championship.

Charles Leclerc turned a lap of 1m33.930s in his #16 Ferrari to nip the #1 Red Bull of Max Verstappen by just 0.091s, but Verstappen let off in the 3rd sector, so he is likely not showing if full hand.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was third in the #55 Ferrari, but 0.338s slower than his teammate and set for a grid penalty on Sunday.

Can Red Bull turn the tables on Charles Leclerc and Ferrari?

George Russell was 4th quick for Mercedes, almost 1-second behind but still sandbagging.

Pierre Gasly rounded out the top-5 for AlphaTauri, ahead of the 2nd Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

Nyck De Vries did well to place 9th subbing for Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton will be back in the cockpit for FP2, and so will Valtteri Bottas, who sat out for Robert Kubica.

A clean session no huge issues and plenty of laps completed. Sergio Perez spun but hit nothing. Now the focus switches from initial set-ups and getting a feel for the tires on longer runs in FP2.

Part Two of the Leclerc – Verstappen show is coming up in just under two hours’ time, with advantage to the Ferrari man so far. But while those two will provide some of the fireworks, the fans will want to see far more from their home team Alpine, while Mercedes will be looking to close the gap to the front-runners.

It’s all to play for.

Practice 1 Times

POS	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME	BEHIND
1	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1m33.930s	+0.000s
2	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1m34.021s	+0.091
3	Carlos Sainz Jr.	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1m34.268s	+0.338
4	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1m34.881s	+0.951
5	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1m34.979s	+1.049
6	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1m35.174s	+1.244
7	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m35.232s	+1.302
8	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1m35.414s	+1.484
9	Nyck de Vries	NED	Mercedes AMG Petronas	1m35.426s	+1.496
10	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1m35.660s	+1.730
11	Guanyu Zhou	CHN	Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen	1m35.676s	+1.746
12	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant	1m35.810s	+1.880
13	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1m35.828s	+1.898
14	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant	1m35.851s	+1.921
15	Fernando Alonso	ESP	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1m35.875s	+1.945
16	Mick Schumacher	GER	Haas F1 Team	1m36.022s	+2.092
17	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1m36.104s	+2.174
18	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1m36.127s	+2.197
19	Robert Kubica	POL	Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen	1m36.332s	+2.402
20	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1m37.043s	+3.113