The final hour of Free Practice ahead of Qualifying for the French Grand Prix this afternoon got underway at 12:00 pm Irish time at the Circuit Paul Ricard.
FP1 was led by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc while FP2 was topped by his teammate Carlos Sainz.
In a bid to set some early pace, both Red Bulls headed out on track early in this session – Perez set the early pace with a 1:33.628, but Verstappen managed to go faster during his first effort with a 1:32.837.
Lewis Hamilton was also out on track early doors after a disappointing Friday for the Mercedes team. Despite his higher downforce rear wing Hamilton didn’t seem to be getting the straight-line speed he hoped for, and was 1.7 seconds off the pace set by Max Verstappen early on.
Meanwhile, George Russell saw his first attempt at a flying lap hampered after going a little fast into turn one with a bit of oversteer.
Then the Ferraris finally arrived on track with Carlos Sainz landing in second straight away on the soft tyres, meanwhile Charles Leclerc, was trying out some longer runs on the hard tyre, land lost control and spins off at Turn 12.
Verstappen led the pack for most of the session on the medium tyre, before extending his lead after switching to softs in the closing minutes.
The Dutchman’s 1:32.272 gave him 0.354s advantage over Carlos Sainz in second, with the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc a further three tenths back in third.
Lewis Hamilton beat the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez to fourth, with Mercedes team-mate George Russell in fifth – all around one second behind Verstappen.
Meanwhile, another benefit for Red Bull this weekend is that one of their closest competitors, Carlos Sainz, will start from the rear of the grid in Sunday’s race after taking a full haul of new engine parts.
Fernando Alonso was in seventh for Alpine, while Alex Albon showed some encouraging pace in the Williams, finishing eighth, with team-mate Nicholas Latifi back in 12th.
The McLaren of Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri rounded out the top 10, while there was concern for Sebastian Vettel who finished last after ending his session early with a damaged Aston Martin.
