EIFFEL POWER

Lewis finally gets the lift he needs with engine upgrade

LEWIS HAMILTON was finally able to turn up the power yesterday as he counted down to the French Grand Prix.

The world champion was fastest in practice as he finally got his hands on the engine upgrade that should have been delivered for the race in Canada two weeks ago. Hamilton dominated both sessions in his Mercedes yesterday and said: “The new engine feels clean and fresh, but we won’t really know its full potential until tomorrow when everyone gets to turn their engines up.

“I’m grateful for the hard work that everyone put into it back in Brixworth.

“They’ve been pushing so hard to get this engine and do it in the right way, so a big thank you to everyone back at the factory – I hope that we can do something great with it!”

Customer teams Williams and Force India also had the new power units for the first F1 race at Le Castellet’s Paul Ricard circuit since 1990. There was also drama on track, with Swede Marcus Ericsson crashing his Sauber, clambering out with the car on fire.

A wheel then came off Sergio Perez’s Force India car in the late afternoon.

Spain’s double world champion Fernando Alonso, winner at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Toyota last weekend, came down to earth with a bump in 16th place with his Mclaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne down in 19th.