Paul Ricard Circuit is 5.842 km long with 53 laps to complete. The first-ever race was held in 1971. The lap record was set by Sebastian Vettel in 2019 with a whopping 1:32.740, a record yet to be broken.
Free Practice 1
Sebastian Vettel started FP1 followed by Nissany, the reserve driver for Williams racing. Within the first few laps, there was an immediate yellow flag as Mick spun but recovered quickly. Yuki Tsunoda spun in the last corner but nothing too drastic.
Bottas returned to the pits with damage in his front wing as he ran over those yellow curbs in turn 2. Kimi was another victim of those curbs. A yellow flag was out when Sebastian Vettel spun in sector 3 hitting the barriers but didn't don't have much damage.
The most drastic event was when Sainz spun in turn 2 into the red lines which in turn scraped his front left tire off, kinda like sandpaper had been rubbed off on those tires.
FP1 ended with Bottas with the fastest lap.
Free Practice 2
Same old same old.
Kimi starts off FP2 followed by Russell and Vettel. Nikita spins of the track but backs up immediately. Max runs off on those yellow curbs in turn 2, which chips a part of the front wing carbon causing debris which deployed a virtual safety car.
Since both Bottas (in FP1) and Max ran off the yellow curbs, in turn, two causing a lot of damage to their floor and wings, both Mercedes and Red Bull radioed FIA over concerns over those curbs and wanting them removed. No decision has been taken yet. But we'll see what happens on sunday.
FP2 ended with Verstappen with the fastest lap.
Overall, it was a very boring session, to be honest. Hoping qualifying will be interesting to watching.
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