France – Free Practice 1: Hamilton on form, Ericsson on fire!

At the end of a session marked by Marcus Ericsson's accident and the fire of his car, Lewis Hamilton claimed the best time ahead of his teammate Valtteri Bottas. Many drivers experienced numerous oversteering issues, leading to multiple off-track excursions.

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Announced in December 2016 and thanks, among other things, to the determination of Christian Estrosi, the return of Formula 1 to France is scheduled as the eighth Grand Prix of the 2018 season.

Formula 1 is thus setting its base in the Var, on the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet, where the F1 cars will tread the freshly resurfaced asphalt of this ultra-modern circuit.

The conditions are ideal for starting this first free practice session with bright sunshine and a crowd that is present despite access difficulties. The outside temperature is around 25°C, accompanied by the mistral, while the track temperature gradually heats up to reach 45°C at the start of the session.

All the protagonists of the Formula 1 world are present to offer us a show worthy of the event. In front of an eager crowd and notable excitement, Marcus Ericsson is the first to launch his Sauber, followed by Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne, to discover this track, which they have so far only judged in the simulator, and begin the reconnaissance lap.

Our French are at the center of attention and the popular movement. Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon proudly display paintings specifically created for the event.

The tires provided by Pirelli for the weekend are the Soft, Super Soft, and Ultra Soft.

Equipped with the purple tires, the two Mercedes set the best times in these first laps of the session with a 1:35.797 for Valtteri Bottas followed by his teammate with a 1:36.118.

The Finn achieved an uncommon performance by setting the lap record on his very first full lap!

The discovery of the circuit proves to be eventful for Brendan Hartley, who ends up on the side of the track after an oversteer pushes him into the blue stripes. Without any consequence to his car, he immediately returns to the track.

Max Verstappen improves by following Valtteri Bottas’s lap, achieving a lap time of 1:35.261 with yellow-walled soft tires.

His teammate Daniel Ricciardo doesn’t hesitate to improve the young Dutchman’s time by completing his lap in 1:34.956, also on soft tires.

Only 5 teams have put their cars on track at the start of the session, namely, in order of time, Red Bull, Mercedes, Toro Rosso, Haas, and Williams.

This is the moment when the Ferraris choose to make their presence known, and Räikkönen immediately secures the second-fastest time at 1:34.470, behind Ricciardo.

Spin for Stoffel Vandoorne who gets caught off guard like Hartley at the beginning of the session by a sudden oversteer of his McLaren. No damage, as the track surroundings are relatively wide and equipped with colored abrasive strips that act like sand traps, minus the bogging down. (The strips are more or less abrasive depending on the colors, the blue ones slowing down slightly and the red ones considerably more.)

As the battle for the top times is in full swing between Räikkönen and Ricciardo, who posted a time of 1:33:495, Lewis Hamilton has a scare during braking, narrowly avoiding a McLaren before heading towards an escape route.

The drivers, reassured by the width of the track, test the limits of their single-seaters, resulting in numerous spins in line with those previously observed. This is how Kimi Räikkönen, Charles Leclerc, and Marcus Ericsson continue to gauge the abrasiveness of the superb asphalt of the Paul Ricard circuit, ending up on the edges of the track like their colleagues at the start of the session.

Flawless until now, Daniel Ricciardo continues to improve the time by breaking the 1:33 barrier with a time of 1:33:576. His Renault-powered Red Bull seems glued to the track, and none of his racing partners manages to beat his reference time. Valtteri Bottas remains second at 563 milliseconds.

This first part of the session was marked by oversteering, with Romain Grosjean pushing the limits to end the show. Notably, Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen had limited running, with both not exceeding 8 test laps.

Return to the pits for almost all the protagonists, leaving Pierre Gasly alone on the track for a few laps, quickly called back to the pits by his engineers with a potential engine problem as the cause.

After a few minutes in their garages, Kevin Magnussen returns to the track accompanied by Stoffel Vandoorne.

Following the resumption of testing by all drivers, the Frenchman Esteban Ocon makes a mistake and nearly hits the barriers by a few centimeters due to oversteering after clipping the curb a bit too much. More fear than harm, he sets off again after a few seconds of being stationary.

Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas improves Daniel Ricciardo’s time by only 10 thousandths before being outpaced by nearly three-tenths by his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who sets a time of 1:32.273 on Ultra Soft tires.

While the latter continues to improve his own time to 1:32.231, still on purple tires, the slides continue in the pack with Charles Leclerc struggling to stabilize his car.

Best French driver, Romain Grosjean continues to consistently make the Top 6 times, keeping Verstappen one-tenth of a second behind his 1:33.318 time.

Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon close the ranking of the French at this stage of the session by securing the 8th and 12th fastest times respectively, with 1:33.695 and 1:34.384.

First crash of the weekend at Castellet for Marcus Ericsson, who jumps out of his car in flames after going off the track at Beausset corner, still linked to the chronic oversteer experienced on this track by all the drivers.

No harm for the Sauber driver, unlike his car.

The session ended with this racing incident, with Lewis Hamilton topping the timesheets and ahead of his teammate. Third in the session with a time set on yellow tires, Lewis Hamilton seems to have more to give.

The complete classification of FP1:

From our special correspondent in Le Castellet.

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