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Verstappen sets practice pace at French GP

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Red Bull driver Max Verstappen proved quickest on the Paul Ricard racetrack in French GP practice.
Camera IconRed Bull driver Max Verstappen proved quickest on the Paul Ricard racetrack in French GP practice. Credit: AP

Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen has set the pace in the second practice session for the French Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver placed narrowly ahead of Valtteri Bottas and his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France on Friday.

After damaging a part of his front wing early in the afternoon session, Verstappen found the pace to finish in one minute 32.872 seconds, only 0.008sec ahead of Bottas and 0.253 clear of Hamilton, the defending F1 champion.

Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso was an impressive fourth for the French-owned Alpine team, which was formerly Renault, while Charles Leclerc finished fifth for Ferrari.

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The top three were the same for both sessions, but in a different order.

Earlier in the day, Bottas had overcome a poor start to top P1 from Hamilton and Verstappen.

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This came after some early trouble, when Bottas bounced over kerbs and appeared to damage the front wing on his car.

But he recovered to post the morning's best lap of 1:33.448, putting him 0.335 ahead of Hamilton and 0.432 clear of Verstappen.

Soon after Bottas had his mishap, four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel lost control of the rear of his Aston Martin and slid backward off the track into the crash barriers.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr slid off late in the session, just as Verstappen lost top spot on the leaderboard, while three other drivers also had trouble with grip and went off track.

There is a third practice on Saturday ahead of qualifying.

Verstappen leads the championship by four points ahead of Hamilton after six races of an exciting season so far.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo was 14th in his McLaren in the second practice after finishing sixth in the morning session.

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