---
title: "Hamilton fastest in FP1, Ericsson crashes"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2018/06/22/hamilton-fastest-in-fp1-ericsson-crashes/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Kyran Gibbons"
section: "F1 News"
published: "2018-06-22T11:57:48Z"
modified: "2018-06-22T11:57:48Z"
---

# Hamilton fastest in FP1, Ericsson crashes

Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two in opening practice for the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard, while Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson crashed in the closing minutes.

Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas eased their way to the top of the timesheet after having been behind both Red Bulls after the opening 20 minutes.

Bottas initially deposed Daniel Ricciardo from first before Hamilton took over at top spot. His 1m32.231s was 0.140s clear of Bottas’s best.

It was not a perfect session for Hamilton, who experienced two off-track moments. He was wrong-footed by a slow-moving Stoffel Vandoorne, before later being caught out by Max Verstappen who was on an in-lap, running wide at Turn 12.

Hamilton’s second excursion was moments before the session was brought to an early conclusion.

Sitting 14th on the timesheet, Ericsson lost control of his car on the entry to Turn 11 spinning at high-speed and hitting the barriers. The left-hand side of his car which had collided with the wall then caught fire. He emerged from the incident unscathed.

The session was red flagged with three minutes remaining and was not restarted.

Ricciardo ended up third on the timesheet. He delayed his ultrasoft run by nearly 20 minutes, improving on his initial soft tyre run to finish 0.296s behind Hamilton.

The Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel finished the session in fourth and fifth.

Raikkonen was one of a number of drivers to be pitched into a spin by a tailwind at the long right-hander of Turn 6 early in the session.

Vettel improved on his second lap on the ultrasoft tyre after he lost time at the final corner with a lock-up on his first lap.

It was this second lap which allowed him to vault clear of Romain Grosjean who ended up in sixth for Haas.

Max Verstappen finished the session in seventh. He had to return to the pits after five laps with a technical issue at the rear of the car. He recovered 10 laps late on.

Pierre Gasly, Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top 10.

Esteban Ocon’s session was truncated by a spin at Turn 6 after just three laps on his second set of tyres. Opting not to run again due to the resultant flat-spots, he completed just 14 laps – nearly half of the mileage of his team-mate – and finished 12th.