F1 French Grand Prix LIVE RESULTS: Latest updates as practice gets UNDERWAY – stream, TV channel, UK start time

RICCIARDO’S STRUGGLES CONTINUE

It was another bad day for Daniel Ricciardo in practice.

He was the 14th fastest, four places behind McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.

He’s finished in P7, P6, P9, P6, P12 and P9 in the first six races of the season.

Can the 31-year-old turn his form around in France?

SHOCKER FOR ASTON MARTIN

Aston Martin did not have a good FP2 ahead of this weekend’s Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll were 15th and 16th fastest, with only the Williams and Haas drivers going slower.

It’s a far cry from two weeks ago, when Vettel finished P2 at the Azerbaijan GP.

FINAL STANDINGS IN FP2

KERBS CAUSING CHAOS

Final element from FP2 is that Red Bull have asked to remove the kerbs that cost Verstappen some bodywork at Turn 2.

A frank exchange between the team and race director, Michael Masi.

Red Bull: “It is a huge penalty for going wide – penalty is around £100,000.”

Masi: “Teams have asked for physical limits, they were there in 2019…I will have a look at it”.

FP3 IS DONE

Verstappen leads and looks good.
Bottas looks inspired and revived.
Hamilton unhappy in third place and said so.
Alonso a surprise in P4 but getting up to speed for Alpine.

BOTTAS IS LOOKING STRONG IN FRANCE

And boys does he need it. Questions about his future. Two races with no points. Down in sixth place in the championship.

He knows he needs a win this weekend before the pressure builds.

VERSTAPPEN TOPS FP2 PEREZ IN 12TH

ALONSO REDISCOVERING FORM

It has not been the return to F1 he wanted, as he has been soundly beaten by his teammate. But there are signs he is getting back up to speed.

HAMILTON UNHAPPY

He radios his team and says: “There is something not right with the car, man!”

BOTTAS STILL LEADS HAMILTON

Remember, there was that curious decision from Mercedes to swap their chassis over for this race.

Unusual to do it. Even more strange to announce it. Perhaps a way to show there is no preferred driver? Or to give under performing Bottas a lift?

CHARLES LECLERC GOING FOR THREE CONSECUTIVE POLES

But this could be one race too much. Ferrari were fortunate in Monaco and Azerbaijan, but they are off the pace in France so far.

They have some work to do if they are to catch the Mercs and Red Bull.

BITS FALLING OFF VERSTAPPEN’S CAR

He runs over the kerbs and a part breaks off. Red Bull immediately radio race control to request the part is returned to the garage.

That’s Red Bull wanting to protect their upgrades from prying eyes and to reattach it to Verstappen’s car.

SPIN FOR MAZEPIN

Death, taxes and spins for the Russian, as the Haas driver loses grip and slides around.

DIZZYING PAINT WORK AT PAUL RICARD

The red, white and blue painted lines is all rather striking but this track has so far served up two dull races in 2018 and 2019.

Both of those won by Lewis Hamilton, who is going in search of his hatrick.

FP2 IS GO IN FRANCE

It was a Merc 1-2 in the morning session. Can Red Bull find a way back?

DEFLATEGATE

Lewis Hamilton’s rivalry with Max Verstappen has blown up with F1’s very own deflategate.

Verstappen was sent crashing out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix when his tyre burst without warning, sending him into a wall at 200mph.

And Hamilton said: “Every weekend whenever there is a failure, they always put the pressures up – so that tells you something.

“More often than not, [it’s] that the tyres are not being run at the pressures that are being asked. We didn’t have a problem with our tyres.

“I think Pirelli have done a great job with the tyres this year, they’re more robust than before, and I think in this particular instance, I don’t think Pirelli are at fault.”

But Verstappen shot back: “The only thing I can say is from our side the team did everything like they should have done. Pirelli cannot put the blame on us, and I think they have to look at themselves.”

ALL EYES ON PIRELLI

A major subplot following Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll’s crashes in Baku has been the Pirelli tyre failures that caused them.

Both the teams and tyre manufacturer claim no fault in the high-speed smashes with Pirelli blaming lower pressures and errors in data simulations.

Pirelli’s head of F1 and car racing Mario Isola said: “What happened in Baku is simply that the running conditions expected were different compared to the actual running conditions – and that created the failure.

“When you have a lot of energy going into the tyres, with the pressure that is lower compared to the expectation, the result is that on the sidewall you have what we call standing waves.

“Standing waves are putting a lot of energy into the inside shoulder of the tyre. And, at a certain point, the tyre breaks. That is what happened, and the reason why we had this situation in Baku.”

LEW-SING OUT

Lewis Hamilton has stated that Mercedes will look for a ‘long-term’ solution to the error that ended his Azerbaijan Grand Prix hopes.

The Brit knocked his ‘magic’ steering wheel button that severely reduced his brakes at the restart in Baku, and moving the feature around the pad is no quick fix.

Hamilton said: “I don’t even count it as a mistake.

“You can’t always be perfect [but] a mistake is where you drive off the track through missing your braking point or hitting the wall. 

“But it was an unforced error, really something we had that was sitting there that could have happened at any point and it unfortunately bit us pretty hard. But we learned from the experience and we move forwards.”

SET YOUR WATCH

The second and final session of the day gets underway in just over an hour from southern France.

Stay with us for FP2 at 2pm.

GROSJEAN KO

Romain Grosjean was set to run this weekend in a Mercedes for an emotional final outing in an F1 car.

The Frenchman missed the final weeks of last year when his Haas car was involved in a terrifying fireball crash in Bahrain.

And he had been given the chance to enjoy a test with the Mercs at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Yet Covid quarantine regulations and travel restrictions has meant a delay, with the team restating their commitment to giving Grosjean a proper send-off.

VETTEL’S SPIN

It was a rather hairy first practice in Le Castellet and chief among the incidents was Sebastian Vettel’s collision with the wall at Turn 10.

TOP TEN IN FP1

1. BOT – 1:33.448
2. HAM – Three tenths back
3. VER – Unable to put in clean hot lap on Softs
4. PER – 1:34.193 on Hard tyre
5. OCO – Joint-most laps on 25 with Perez
6. RIC
7. ALO
8. GAS
9. NOR
10. TSU

CHEQUERED FLAG

That is the end of the first session and Mercedes will be quietly pleased with a one-two on the timesheets.

Plenty more running to come and there is a strong feeling that those Red Bulls have a lot left in the tank.

VERSTAPPEN GOES WIDE

In chasing the FP1 honour, Max Verstappen has to bail at Turn 1.

Mind you, no one has won the race after ‘winning’ first practice this season, so it’s maybe not the most prestigious of gongs…

OCON ON FORM

Esteban Ocon celebrating his new contract with Alpine and is sitting above Fernando Alonso after a quick lap.

The Frenchman is fifth with Daniel Ricciardo, who really needs a good weekend, sixth.