Mercedes are fighting back at the more traditional Circuit Paul Ricard this weekend after a disappointing two outings in Monaco and Baku.
Valtteri Bottas led the pack when time ran out this morning with the fastest lap in 1:33.448.
His British teammate, Lewis Hamilton wasn’t far behind, crossing the line just .335s off the pace.
Their closest competitors, Red Bull, are directly in their shadows already, hinting at another epic fight at the top of the field this Sunday.
Max Verstappen was in third followed by Sergio Perez in fourth – .745s away from the Silver arrows.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon finished the morning in 5th, with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo looking more comfortable in the MCL35M this weekend in 6th, while his teammate Lando Norris was in 9th.
Fernando Alonso was 7th fastest, followed by the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly, who is looking to improve on his previous outing to the Circuit Paul Ricard.
On Thursday he said; “Baku was another track that had never gone well for me until this year and so I’m hoping we can follow the trend and change that this weekend also.”
His rookie teammate Yuki Tsunoda closes out the top ten on the early timesheets this morning and was 1.399s off the pace.
