Sainz fastest as Ferrari set blistering pace in second French GP practice

Ferrari completed a Friday practice clean sweep at the French Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz leading the way from teammate Charles Leclerc in FP2.

Sainz and Leclerc traded fastest lap times as the F1 field swapped Medium tyres for Softs in the baking afternoon sun at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

After several improvements, Sainz held the P1 spot with a 1:32.527 – benefitting from a significant tow along the start/finish straight.

FP1 pace-setter Leclerc had to settle for second on the leaderboard this time out, ending the session just over a tenth away from Sainz.

Ferrari held a significant advantage over Red Bull, with Max Verstappen half a second adrift and left to rue "a lot of understeer" in his car.

Sainz will, however, take a 10-place grid penalty for the race after taking on new power unit elements and exceeding his allocation for the season.

Hamilton back in action at Mercedes

Having stepped aside for Formula 2 and Formula E title winner Nyck de Vries in first practice, Lewis Hamilton returned to the wheel in FP2.

Hamilton, contesting his 300th Grand Prix this weekend, wound up fifth, a second off the pace set by Sainz and a couple of tenths down on teammate George Russell.

McLaren driver Lando Norris backed up his encouraging FP1 performance in sixth, followed by AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly – who at one point sent a furious radio message as rival drivers got in his way – and Haas' Kevin Magnussen.

Daniel Ricciardo made it two McLarens in the top 10 positions, which were completed by the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

Perez ended up a second slower than teammate Verstappen on what was a difficult first day for the Mexican with several off-track excursions and garage delays.

Alpine yet to make an impression on home soil

Hopes were high in the Alpine camp of a strong home performance after their Austrian GP display, but this has so far failed to materialise.

Fernando Alonso placed 11th on the timesheets, almost two seconds away from P1, with teammate Esteban Ocon four tenths further back in 18th.

Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas was the other driver to get back in the cockpit, after stepping aside for Robert Kubica in FP1, en route to 12th position.

Aston Martin pair Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll were 13th and 15th respectively, sandwiching the other AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda.

Alex Albon and Williams fell from the top 10 in FP1 to 16th in FP2, while teammate Nicholas Latifi again brought up the rear of the field.

Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) was 17th, ahead of the aforementioned Ocon and Mick Schumacher (Haas) – the latter surviving a wild spin at Turn 11.