Max Verstappen led the second practice session for the Formula 1 French Grand Prix 2021 with a margin of 0.008 seconds over the Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in Paul Ricard.
After Red Bull changed the setup of Verstappen after his third place in FP1, the championship leader Bottas, the first training pace setter, ousted as the Finn did not find time to put the soft tires on laps compared to his best at the beginning the media.
When the second hour-long practice session began on Friday, Williams driver George Russell set the P1 benchmark at 1: 37,201 minutes on medium-sized tires when he made his first appearance over the weekend after Roy Nissany drove his car in FP1.
Russell was quickly demoted as the field made his first few laps, with Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi taking first place with a 1: 35.522 – also in the middle – after five minutes.
Just moments later, Bottas shot to the top of the time with a very competitive 1: 32.880s on the yellow walled rubber, this time being the fastest time for the next 30 minutes.
Hamilton and Verstappen closed behind Bottas in the early stages, their best laps on the middle distance brought them back 0.4 seconds and one second respectively.
Verstappen also lost a piece of his front wing when he quickly ran right over the large yellow curbs at the exit of Turn 2, which was recovered by a marshal who ran onto the track under the virtual safety car, according to Red Bull race director Michael Masi there is a shortage of such carbon parts.
Bottas made his first appearance on the softs after 20 minutes, but although he was the fastest in the first sector at this point, he faded as the lap progressed and ended up running a time that was 0.338s slower than his lead. Time on the media.
Hamilton then set his best time in FP2 on the Softs, but was still 0.245s slower than Bottas when the world champion soon realized: “Something is wrong with the car”.
Shortly after halfway, Verstappen went to a qualifying simulation on the softs and set the fastest time in the first sector.
He gave Bottas a little time in the second sector, which mainly consists of the Mistral straight, but was able to keep enough life in the softs to set a purple third sector and drive the fastest with 1: 32.872 minutes.
He was only 0.008 seconds at the top, with Hamilton 0.253 seconds behind Verstappen in third place. Then the field switched the long-term data acquisition to race preparation mode.
Fernando Alonso was fourth for Alpine, ahead of Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon in the second Alpine.
The other Frenchman in Formula 1, Pierre Gasly, finished seventh just behind his compatriot, Carlos Sainz, eighth for Ferrari.
Kimi Raikkonen and Lando Norris completed the top 10 for Alfa Romeo and McLaren.
Sergio Perez, the winner last time in Baku, landed on P12 because he was not faster after switching from the softs to the mediums either.
Perez eventually set his personal best on the softs, but he still finished a second behind his teammate’s session top lap time.
Daniel Ricciardo finished 14th in the second McLaren ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll. The Aston Martin pair also ended the session with their early media bests.
Nikita Mazepin brought up the rear for Haas. The Russian spun at slow speed as he turned into the pit straight during the first run and lost the tail in the same way as AlphaTauris Yuki Tsunoda (P13) in FP1 as he had looked like he was about to start a flying lap but instead the car spun as he turned the power down and spun around.
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