Bottas fastest as rain curtails France FP3 running
Valtteri Bottas closed out Formula 1 practice for the French Grand Prix fastest for Mercedes as heavy rain 10 minutes into the session curtailed running.
After seeing Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton lead both FP1 and FP2 on Friday, Bottas took his turn at the head of the field with a fastest time of 1m33.666s set in the early stages of the session on the Ultrasoft tyre, getting the lap in before a sharp downpour hit the Paul Ricard circuit.
Valtteri Bottas closed out Formula 1 practice for the French Grand Prix fastest for Mercedes as heavy rain 10 minutes into the session curtailed running.
After seeing Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton lead both FP1 and FP2 on Friday, Bottas took his turn at the head of the field with a fastest time of 1m33.666s set in the early stages of the session on the Ultrasoft tyre, getting the lap in before a sharp downpour hit the Paul Ricard circuit.
While 13 drivers were able to complete a flying lap and put a time on the board, the remaining runners were limited only to installation laps as rain soaked the circuit, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel telling his team the session was "over" as he nursed his car back to the pits on slcik tyres.
The track remained silent until the final 10 minutes of the session when Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin all braved the track on full wet tyres, with a handful of others following suit to complete a single lap late in the session.
Carlos Sainz Jr. ended the FP2 in second place for Renault ahead of Sauber's Charles Leclerc, with Alonso taking fourth overall ahead of Vettel. Stoffel Vandoorne took sixth in the second McLaren ahead of Pierre Gasly and Marcus Ericsson, while Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10.
Esteban Ocon was 11th for Force India ahed of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, with Stroll and Sirotkin following in P14 and P15 after their wet-weather running.
Qualifying for the French Grand Prix begins at 4pm local time (BST + 1) at Paul Ricard.
