LE CASTELLET, France – Lewis Hamilton proved the potency of Mercedes’ new power unit upgrades by sweeping both Formula One practice sessions for the French Grand Prix on Friday.
All six Mercedes-Benz powered cars on the grid were fitted with fresh turbochargers, MGU-H and internal combustion engines of an upgraded specification, containing reliability and performance updates, and Hamilton wasted no time in taking them right to the top.
Hamilton posted the overall fastest lap of the day – a time of 1:32.231 – on Pirelli’s ultrasoft tires during the first practice round and then backed his performance up with a time of 1:32.539 in the final session later in the afternoon.
“The new engine feels clean and fresh, but we won’t really know its full potential until tomorrow, when everyone gets to turn their engines up,” said Hamilton. “I’m grateful for the hard work that everyone put into it back in Brixworth. They’ve been pushing so hard to get this engine and do it in the right way, so a big thank you to everyone back at the factory and I hope that we can do something great with it!
“Overall, it was a good session today, so now we just need to carry on this performance through the weekend.”
Sunday will mark the first time F-1 cars have raced in France since 2008, when Felipe Massa drove Ferrari to victory at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours.
This weekend’s revival of the French Grand Prix is taking place at Circuit Paul Ricard, the on-and-off home of the French Grand Prix from 1971 through 1990 which also hosted MotoGP racing until 1999.
Friday was Hamilton’s first time lapping the historic track.
“This place is beautiful, it’s really stunning down here. It’s always a challenge when you come to a new circuit, but you’re constantly learning new things and I love the challenge of trying to get into the swing of it before everyone else,” noted Hamilton. “There’s a lot of different lines you can take and it’s tricky to find reference points out on the track. Apart from the colorful lines, it’s difficult to tell where you are. There’s a couple of places – for example on the back straight – where you’re trying to find out where the corner is. It’s really hard to see, but this is a great racing facility.”
Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas landed second-fastest on the overall time sheets at 1:32.371 in FP1, but had a water leak that shortened his tenure in the second session.
“We were running the new spec engine today, which felt fresh and good, but we didn’t run it yet in full power so we know there’s more to discover,” explained Bottas. “We need to identify the cause of the water leak, but we’re confident in the new engine. We looked competitive in both sessions today, but we know that Ferrari has performance in hand on Fridays, so we just have to wait and see what tomorrow and Sunday hold for us.”
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was third ahead of the Ferrari duo of Kimi Räikkönen and
Force India’s
A disastrous day for Sauber saw Marcus Ericsson spin and hit the safety barriers at turn 11 during FP1, with his car catching fire but Ericsson able to climb out uninjured. He did not take part in FP2 due to the shunt.
Meanwhile, Ericsson’s teammate Charles Leclerc ranked 13th in the first session despite looping his car on-track twice.
