Strong Friday in France for George as he ends the day in P4 at Paul Ricard.

Taking to the French circuit for the first time in 2022, George donned the Medium Pirelli tyres, setting a benchmark lap time of 1.37.488 within the opening moments of the session.

The Brit continued to improve, slotting into P4 before returning to the pits to switch onto the Soft tyres for the remaining 30 minutes of the session.

Completing 25 laps of the Le Castellet circuit, George put in his best lap time of 1.34.881 to end FP1 in P4.

In FP2, George took to the track immediately on the Medium tyres slotting into P2 before quickly improving to set a 1.34.810 and take him to the top of the timings.

After a lengthy stay in the pits, George re-joined the session on the Soft tyres with only 15 minutes remaining to set a 1.33.291, his best lap time of the day and round out Friday in P4.

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George Russell – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team Driver

It was quite enjoyable to be back out there at this track as it’s quite a fun one in certain aspects. Some teams struggled more than others with the high temperatures. We only did five consecutive laps but we’re also probably a bit further off the pace than what we had hoped for. We have work to do tonight here at the track and back at the factories. There’s a lot to go over and we need to make sure we can optimise our pace for tomorrow. From the running today, it looks like we’re finding time but all the other teams keep bringing updates too, and the whole grid moves forward. So, although we’re finding time, our competitors do as well. And we need to look at the data to see if our upgrades are working as sometimes it’s not as simple as just seeing it on the lap charts.

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