Baku winner Sergio Perez finished the hour-long session in fourth place as the two leading F1 teams took the top positions at Paul Ricard.
Sebastian Vettel led the field out of the pits at the beginning of the session, his Aston Martin was equipped with two tall, triangular aero rakes before Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi set the first P1 benchmark with 1: 38.487 minutes like most drivers did in the Circumnavigated the initial phase on the hard tires.
Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc – who ran the middle class – Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz Jr. each improved their fastest times with their first flying laps at the end of the first five minutes, with Sainz taking them to 1: 36.749 minutes.
Verstappen then moved to the top for the first time with 1: 35.639 minutes, which was considered the best time until the end of the first 10 minutes, when Lando Norris drove a 1: 35.461 minutes.
After McLaren’s pull, Sainz moved back to first place with 1: 35.342 minutes, but then Verstappen set the fastest time on the hard tires with 1: 34.139 minutes.
Shortly before half-time, the Mercedes drivers hit the soft tires to complete the first performance runs of the event, with Hamilton taking first place with a time of 1: 33.783 minutes.
Verstappen’s first flying lap on the red-walled rubber was 0.097 seconds slower than Hamilton, who was soon seized by Bottas – who in the initial phase quickly drove right over the large curbs at the exit of Turn 2 and damaged the front wing in the process.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
After spending some time in the garage when Mercedes was inspecting the damage – which it estimated at “tens of thousands of pounds” when team sport director Ron Meadows complained to race director Michael Masi about the placement of the curbs – Bottas had nested right behind Verstappen at the end of the hard tire run.
His first flying lap of 1: 33.488 minutes on the softs gave him 0.335 seconds ahead of Hamilton and was the fastest time to the end of the session.
Verstappen was 0.432 seconds behind Bottas, while Perez was 0.745 seconds behind on his best lap on soft tires.
Red Bull called on Verstappen after his first softshod run to make a few adjustments, and then he held up almost his time in the first sector – which lasted until the end of the session – before being the fastest of them all in the middle sector.
But if he drove far over the curbs from Turn 11, a long, fast right-hand bend, Verstappen had to abandon this lap because the Dutchman suspected that he had sustained ground damage.
Esteban Ocon jumped to fifth place with a late lap on the softs and finished the second Alpine ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso.
Gasly was eighth ahead of Norris, Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10.
Several drivers mirrored Bottas as they drove heavily over the curbs of the exit at Turn 2 – including Kimi Räikkönen (P13) and Gasly – while three of the field spun.
Mick Schumacher, who finished 19th in the final FP1 classification, spun on his outlap on his outlap at the beginning of the session and crashed his right front against the wall after he had skewered to the left, as he approached the curve.
The Haas driver was able to recover until the pit, which Vettel also managed after a high-speed spin in turn 11.
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR21, Esteban Ocon, Alpine A521
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The rear of the Aston swung around on Vettel when he turned right in the first part of the curve, which threw him backwards over the striped run-off zone and his rear wing hit the tire barrier.
Although it was a significant impact, Vettel was able to drive away and eventually returned to the track for the later run of the session, where he eventually finished 15th, one place behind his teammate Lance Stroll.
Sainz was the other crank to lose the rear of his Ferrari after hard clipping the apex at Turn 2 and backing out into the spout, ruining his first set of softs shortly after the Spaniard kicked off his first performance on that compound.
The Ferrari drivers ended up in the last order on P11 and P16, above all Leclerc.
Roy Nissany, who ran in Williams instead of George Russell in FP1, brought up the rear of the field.
