What went on in Ferrari-dominated second French GP practice

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, who is set to serve a grid penalty in the French Grand Prix, set the pace in the second Friday practice session.

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Key moments:

> Ferrari half a second clear
> Verstappen third, Perez only 10th
> Big spin for Schumacher

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As one of the very few drivers to run the soft compound rather than the medium on his opening run in FP2, Sainz established a lead of over eight tenths early on – with his former team-mate Max Verstappen and his current team-mate Charles Leclerc behind him, 0.010s apart on the yellow-walled tyres.

Leclerc jumped two tenths ahead of Sainz once switching to softs, but the Spaniard – who will serve a penalty of at least 10 places for Sunday’s race – replied with an eight-tenth improvement of his own to a 1m32.527s.

Ferrari’s 1-2 was then secured by Leclerc lapping 0.101s off Sainz, which crucially left him well clear of championship leader Verstappen.

The Dutchman couldn’t get within half a second of Sainz on his first soft-tyre attempt and appeared to overrule his team’s guidance in requesting another qualifying simulation attempt – which was another four tenths slower thanks to “a lot of understeer in the first sector” despite a session-best second sector.

Mercedes was three quarters of a second off the pace in fourth-placed George Russell’s hands, with Lewis Hamilton – who had ceded his W13 to Nyck de Vries in first practice – another two tenths down.

Lando Norris, who ran the old-spec McLaren in first practice but switched to the upgraded version for the afternoon session, was a tenth off Hamilton in sixth, followed by AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and Norris’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was only 10th, a second off Verstappen.

The biggest incident in the session befell Magnussen’s team-mate Mick Schumacher, the German caught out in a high-speed spin through the ‘double right’ Le Beausset and appeared quite fortunate to not end up in the barriers.

Practice 2 Results