Lewis Hamilton enjoyed a perfect start to his French GP weekend by topping Practice One, as Mercedes' rivals trialled new upgrades. Hamilton, the championship leader, was absent from Paul Ricard's 'media day' but impressively marked his track arrival on Friday, beating Valtteri Bottas by 0.069s as the team-mates and title rivals traded fastest laps. Hamilton gained more than four tenths in the final sector, while his 1:32.738 was almost a second quicker than the best time in this session a year ago. Charles Leclerc was Mercedes' closest challenger in third for Ferrari, 0.3s off the pace, but the Scuderia appeared to be focusing more on analysing their new upgrades rather than one-lap pace....
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