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Rain-impacted FP3 sees limited running from drivers

Valtteri Bottas put his name at the top of the timesheet in FP3 in what turned out to be a very wet dress-rehearsal before this afternoon's qualifying session.

The Finn, and the drivers he preceded, never managed more than five laps in the disrupted session, leaving everyone with more questions than answers before this afternoon's battle.

French Grand Prix - Free Practice 3 times

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:33.666s		3
2	Carlos Sainz	Renault	1:34.953s	+ 1.287s	3
3	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:35.012s	+ 1.346s	5
4	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:36.365s	+ 2.699s	4
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:36.756s	+ 3.090s	5
6	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:37.547s	+ 3.881s	4
7	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:38.317s	+ 4.651s	5
8	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:38.450s	+ 4.784s	3
9	Sergio Pérez	Force India	1:39.641s	+ 5.975s	4
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:39.738s	+ 6.072s	3
11	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:40.087s	+ 6.421s	4
12	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:40.743s	+ 7.077s	3
13	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:49.711s	+ 16.045s	3
14	Lance Stroll	Williams	2:02.399s	+ 28.733s	4
15	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	2:04.093s	+ 30.427s	5
16	Kevin Magnussen	Haas			1
17	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso			3
18	Romain Grosjean	Haas			1
19	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault			2
20	Max Verstappen	Red Bull			3

Southern France's sunny weather gave way to covered skies and the threat of rain, enticing everyone to make a run for it early on in the session.

Several drivers actually reported a few rain drops on the visor from the outset, but that didn't keep Valtteri Bottas from setting an initial benchmark time of 1m33.666s - ahead of Sainz, Leclerc and Alonso.

Five minutes into the session however, the track started to dampen, and drivers exerted caution. After 15 minutes, a thoroughly soaked surface brought everyone back in and in waiting mode.

Racing lines and confusing lines at Paul Ricard

Seven minutes from the end of the session, McLaren fired up Alonso's McLaren who headed out for a few exploratory laps, along with Williams' Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll, likely just to get a feel for things in case the afternoon's qualifying is also impacted by rain.

Leclerc, Vandoorne, Gasly and Hartley also briefly ventured out, but all were cautioned by their team to avoid taking any risks.

Wise advice just two hours before the all-important grid-defining session…

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Michael Delaney