The Ferrari driver clocked 1m 33.930s on the soft tire to finish just 0.091s ahead of Red Bull, but Verstappen lost around two-tenths of a second running into Turn 11 on his best lap.
Carlos Sainz was more than 0.3s off the pace in third, the Spaniard facing a difficult weekend after Ferrari fitted a new electronic control system to his F1-75 which causes a 10-place penalty.
READ MORE: Sainz handed 10-place penalty in France after getting new engine part
All three tire compounds featured in the first 60-minute session of the weekend, as teams assessed how the Pirelli rubber coped with the heat that is traveling across Europe at the moment. The track temperature reached 58 degrees Celsius.
1 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari 1:33.930 2 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing +0.091s 3 Carlos Sainz SAI Ferrari +0.338s 4 George Russell RUS Mercedes +0.951s 5 Pierre Gasly GAS AlphaTauri +1.04
Mercedes, which brought updates to France, were within a second of the fastest time thanks to George Russell, with team reserve Nyck de Vries borrowing Lewis Hamilton’s car for FP1 to finish ninth, half a second down back.
This was the first time in Hamilton’s career – which marks 300 French Grand Prix weekends – that he has abandoned his car for an FP1 session. The rules state that every driver must do so at least once this season and the seven-time world champion, who watched the action from the Mercedes garage alongside boss Toto Wolff, opted this weekend to opt out.
HOW IT DID: Follow all the action from first practice for the French Grand Prix
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda were clamoring for upgrades, having last received new parts in race four at Imola and were awarded at Paul Ricard.
Early signs are positive, with Pierre Gasly just a second off the pace in fifth in his home race – however Tsunoda dropped to 18th, more than two seconds off the pace.
Sergio Perez had a small spin at Turn 4 before continuing, the Mexican sixth, ahead of the leading McLaren of Lando Norris, whose team has brought more new parts than any other this weekend.
French GP FP1 2022: Pérez punctures tires at big turn 4
The Briton wasn’t racing in FP1, however, as McLaren ran a couple of back-to-back tests with Daniel Ricciardo – who finished 10th – getting the chance to test them.
Alex Albon was a good eighth for Williams, more than 1.5 seconds ahead of teammate Nicholas Latifi, who was running the new upgrade package for the first time, but finished 20th overall.
Zhou Guanyu was the top Alfa Romeo in 11th, ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and home favorite Esteban Ocon at Alpine, with Sebastian Vettel – who took a 100-year-old Aston Martin for a spin around Circuit Paul Ricard on Thursday – the 14th.
Double world champion Fernando Alonso was 15th, ahead of the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen, who are still awaiting their first updates of the season, with Robert Kubica – borrowing Valtteri Bottas’ car for FP1 – 19th.
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