Sérgio Sette Câmara ran fastest in Free Practice for the first time this season, setting the Le Castellet benchmark at 1:44.009.

 

Fresh from FP1 with Williams F1, Nicholas Latifi was already accustomed to the Circuit Paul Ricard and this was evident in the opening stages, as the Championship leader took control of the session, setting the early laptime at 1:45.556.

 

Not to be outdone, De Vries soon cracked the 1m46s barrier himself and leapt above the Canadian, knowing that a strong weekend could take him ahead of Latifi in the Championship standings. The battle between the two intensified and the DAMS’ driver would smash last year’s quickest Free Practice time – set by Lando Norris - to go top once again.

 

Undeterred, De Vries simply upped his game once more and ran the circuit quicker to reclaim P1. The Canadian spun on Turn 8 in his attempts to match the Dutchman and later dropped out of the top 10. Behind them, the rest of the pack appeared to be playing catch-up;  Mick Schumacher and Ghiotto both had attempts on P1, but fell short and could only manage second.

 

With 10 minutes of the session remaining, De Vries’ control looked unassailable and it took a mammoth effort to seize the place. This came in the shape of a DAMS’ driver, however, this time it was the number five of Sette Câmara. His lap of 1:44.009 was an impressive 0.600s faster than De Vries and four-tenths quicker than last year’s pole time. The duo were followed by Ghiotto, Callum Ilott, Guanyu Zhou, Sean Gelael, Ralph Boschung and Nobuharu Matsushita.

 

The drama is sure to continue this afternoon when the cars return to the track at 4.55pm local time.

 

 

POS.	DRIVER	TEAM	LAPTIME	LAPS
1	Sérgio Sette Câmara	DAMS	1:44.009	17
2	Nyck De Vries	ART Grand Prix	1:44.609	19
3	Luca Ghiotto	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	1:44.669	16
4	Mick Schumacher	PREMA Racing	1:44.778	17
5	Callum Ilott	Sauber Junior Team by Charouz	1:44.829	21
6	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi Racing	1:44.908	18
7	Sean Gelael	PREMA Racing	1:45.037	18
8	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	1:45.054	18
9	Ralph Boschung	Trident	1:45.112	19
10	Nobuharu Matsushita	Carlin	1:45.127	18
11	Louis Delétraz	Carlin	1:45.134	20
12	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1:45.296	20
13	Dorian Boccolacci	Campos Racing	1:45.417	19
14	Nikita Mazepin	ART Grand Prix	1:45.499	17
15	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	1:45.506	19
16	Juan Manuel Correa	Sauber Junior Team by Charouz	1:45.520	19
17	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	1:45.886	18
18	Anthoine Hubert	BWT Arden	1:46.043	19
19	Tatiana Calderon	BWT Arden	1:47.822	20
20	Mahaveer Raghunathan	MP Motorsport	1:51.923	18