With a sunny day in Le Castellet, Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton made the most of FP1 and FP2. Valtteri suffered some damage to the front wing during FP1, but was not the only driver.

In the end, even though both drivers struggled on track, Bottas is feeling confident and Hamilton is hoping for a better outcome during FP3 and qualifying.

Bottas was quickest in FP1 and P2 in FP2, despite setting his fastest time on the mediums in the afternoon. Hamilton slotted in behind his teammate in both of the Friday practice sessions at the French circuit. 

“I have a lot better feeling than a couple of weeks ago, that’s for sure. We started the weekend on the front foot, everything felt OK and the car has been pretty fast so far,” says the Finnish driver after today’s sessions.

“The balance is good, the tyres are working well, I’m confident with the car and I can trust the car - I think that’s the biggest difference from Baku. It’s going to be close between us and Red Bull, I’m sure they have lots more to come, but so do we. “

With Lewis Hamilton adding:

“It was quite a struggle out there, probably for everyone. I don’t know if it’s the track surface, the temperature or these inflated tyres - the pressures are higher than ever before - but we were all sliding around out there. We’ll be doing a lot of analysis tonight with the hope that it’s better for tomorrow but the times don’t look terrible and we’re in the battle, so that’s positive.

The Hard compound is the better-feeling tyre, it felt heavy-duty which is important with the temperatures here - the softer you go the worse it feels so I imagine the Hard tyre will be the one everyone wants to get onto in the race on Sunday.”