Hamilton under investigation at French Grand Prix

PARIS: Lewis Hamilton is under investigation by the stewards for appearing to block Max Verstappen in second practice for the French Grand Prix.

Less than a fortnight after Sebastian Vettel was stripped of his win in Canada for rejoining the circuit in an unsafe manner, Hamilton’s incident with Verstappen will now be probed. Hamilton ran off the Circuit Paul Ricard at the fourth bend after losing control of his Mercedes as he entered the corner.

He then came back on to the circuit with Verstappen running off the road to avoid Hamilton’s recovering Mercedes. The world champion held his left hand up to apologise to Verstappen. Hamilton will now wait to see if the stewards take any action.

After topping the time charts in the opening running, Hamilton trailed Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas later in the day. Bottas finished nearly half a second clear of world champion, with the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Vettel third and fourth respectively.

The Ferrari pair were six and seven tenths down on Bottas with Mercedes, who have won every race this season, again appearing to hold the advantage. Back on track, British teenager Lando Norris finished an impressive fifth as his encouraging start to life in Formula One continued.

The 19-year-old was the only non-Mercedes and Ferrari driver to end the day within one second of Bottas’ best time. Indeed, Norris was ahead of both Red Bulls, in Verstappen and Pierre Gasly, who was eighth, and Carlos Sainz in the sister McLaren.

Sainz finished seventh, almost six tenths slower than Norris. English novice George Russell finished 19th, half a second clear of his Williams team-mate Robert Kubica.