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Team Summary:
The final practice session for the 2021 French Grand Prix would commence
with a fairly long delay before the first cars took to the track. Mazepin
would be first out with ten minutes completed. He would be joined by
Schumacher and others including both Williams cars. All were running on the
soft tyre. A 1m:34.8966 from Mazepin followed by Schumacher. Both Alpine's
were running along with Perez and Ricciardo. Next out were Norris and
Vettel. Perez would set a 1m:33.775 followed by Nicholas. Ocon would go
quickest but Alonso would set a 1m:33.206 to be quickest with Ricciardo
second. Ocon was third followed by Perez, Raikkonen, George, Schumacher, and
Nicholas eighth.
Norris would move into fifth while the Williams cars were now seventh and
ninth. Leclerc was now in fourth as more drivers took to the track including
both Mercedes and Verstappen. Ocon was now third while we had both Aston
Martins running but on the hard tyre. Hamilton would go quickest with a
1m:33.167 but Bottas would move ahead with a 1m:32.346. But Verstappen would
jump both with a 1m:32.337 followed by Bottas, Hamilton, Alonso, Leclerc,
Ricciardo, Ocon, Norris, Perez and Raikkonen tenth. The Williams pair were
now 11th and 14th. Gasly was now in seventh as the Williams cars were now
down in 14th and 18th.
Bottas would improve with a 1m:32.309 to again be quickest but Verstappen
would also improve but his time would be deleted. So the order was now
Bottas, Verstappen, Hamilton, Alonso, Leclerc, Ricciardo, Gasly, Sainz,
Norris and Ocon now tenth. Gasly would jump up to fourth to be ahead of
Alonso. Both Williams cars were back out and we would see one move up to
ninth on what was most likely a qualifying simulation. They would move up
the order to be 9th and 11th as Hamilton went second. More drivers were
coming out for qualifying simulations as Verstappen went quickest with a
1m:31.300 followed by Bottas and now Sainz. Perez was fourth followed by
Hamilton.
Norris was now sixth as the Williams drivers dropped to be 15th and 18th.
This would become 16th & 18th which is a continued reflection of their
practice pace. The session would come to an end with Verstappen remaining
fastest from Bottas, Sainz, Perez, Hamilton, Norris, Alonso, Ocon, Gasly,
and Ricciardo tenth. The Williams pair would remain in 16th and 18th which
does not bode well for their qualifying prospects with the usual result of
George into Q2 and Nicholas unfortunately not making it out of Q1.
Nicholas Latifi:
Running on the soft tyre Nicholas would set a 1m:34.248 to be second but
would drop down the order to be fifth. This would become ninth then 14th.
Nicholas would pit after a seven lap run on the soft tyre. In the pits he
would drop to 19th. Nicholas would return for a second soft tyre run
currently 19th. A 1m:33.584 would see Nicholas 11th. He would drop to 18th
as he pitted remaining in this position as the session ended.
George Russell:
George's first lap time was a 1m:33.862 seeing him fourth dropping to sixth.
He would drop to seventh still behind Raikkonen. He would then as others
went faster drop to be 14th as he pitted after a seven lap soft tyre run.
With just over twenty minutes remaining George would return again on the
soft tyre. And with a 1m:33.364 George would jump to be ninth. But as others
improved he would slowly drop to be 15th and he would pit with six minutes
remaining. In his pit he would drop to 16th and in the pits his session
would end. |
