Lewis Hamilton tops French GP practice as Sergio Perez loses wheel

MERCEDES driver Lewis Hamilton set a blistering pace in second practice at the French Grand Prix.

The world champion was a massive 0.704 seconds quicker than his closest rival, Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.Hamilton's title rival Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari was only fifth fastest, 1.150secs adrift of Hamilton.

The session included a 10-minute red flag period, caused when Sergio Perez's Force India lost a wheel, which potentially distorted the picture.

The team will investigate how the wheel became detached at around 150mph on the Mistral straight, violently pitching the car into and 180-degree spin.

The delay meant drivers made their qualifying simulation runs at different times, when the track conditions may have been different. Vettel, for example, set his time on the fastest ultrasoft tyres before the session was stopped, and Hamilton after.

But the race runs also suggested Mercedes had an advantage - Hamilton was about 0.5secs a lap on average faster than Raikkonen on their long runs on the ultra-soft tyres, with Ricciardo behind the Finn.

Neither Vettel nor Verstappen did comparable runs on the same tyre.

Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas had a troubled session. He was just over 0.2secs behind on the first runs - on slower tyres - but then his car suffered a water leak and he had to miss the balance of the session, losing out on both his qualifying run and his race run.