Hamilton romps to victory in F1’s return to France; Verstappen takes an opportunistic P2, Raikkonen P3; Vettel and Bottas tangle on opening lap,

The championship momentum swung back to Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton who capped of a resurgent weekend for the Silver Arrows with a dominant win at Circuit Paul Ricard on Sunday. Hamilton took advantage of his pole position to avoid the mayhem behind him as the opening lap unspooled on this unfamiliar track, a place that F1 had not raced at since way back in 1990 (the last French GP itself was at Magny-Cours in 2008). Hamilton was able to control the race from the front easily even after a first lap Safety Car was deployed after multiple collisions during the frantic start, including the most significant one between his teammate Valtteri Bottas and his Ferrari title rival, Sebastian Vettel. Vettel misjudged his braking and ran into the back of the Finnish Mercedes man, causing an immediate puncture for Bottas and a damaged front wing for Vettel. Both drivers had to limp to the pits for premature service although Bottas got the worst of it, as he had to nurse his ride home in hopes that the wounded rear left tire did not delaminate and begin destroying all that precious body work.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Both drivers emerged at the tail of the pack and had to pursue a strict recovery strategy to make the best fo a bad situation. With the new nose Vettel’s car was essentially unaffected and the German began carving his back up through the order in rapid fashion when racing resumed on Lap 6. Bottas’ Benz had floor damage. however, and so his progress came more deliberately. Vettel was adjudged to be at fault for the incident by the stewards, however, and received a 5-second time penalty, something he would have to factor into how hard he had to push on a set of new Soft tires that potentially he and Ferrari might run to the bitter end.

But it became clear that Vettel’s tries, after working his way all the way up to P4 before seeing himself passed by his teammate Kimi Raikkonen on Lap 39, would not stay competitive until the end of the 53 lap contest. Vettel pitted on Lap 41 for fresh rubber and to serve his 5-second penalty in the pits, coming out in time to still maintain his P5 overall. This was the moment for Mercedes and Bottas, who had himself battled up to P6, to seize the opportunity to jump the penalized Vettel in the pits or at least get close enough to challenge him with a clean stop. But mighty Mercedes uncharacteristically dropped the ball with a jack problem and Bottas’ stop was as slow as Vettel’s penalty-hampered one. In the end the two drivers held station after their excellent comebacks, with Vettel finishing P5 and Bottas an unlucky P7. While Hamilton swanned to victory, team Mercedes had to be wondering about theirs and Bottas’ bad luck as they left valuable points on the table after their front row lockout in qualifying. Ferrari were probably feeling the same way after their paladin’s first-lap misjudgment.

The main beneficiary of the opening lap melee was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who started P4 and avoided contact with Vettel and Bottas by taking evasive action outside track limits before resuming in P2 behind Hamilton. Because it was for his own safety his excursion was deemed a legal move by Verstappen and the Dutch wunderkind thereafter drove an excellently well controlled race to maintain that lucky spot. While he never had anything for Hamilton at the front, who seemed to tease the Red Bull by conserving his tires and keeping his engine turned down, Verstappen and the team had to be well pleased by both his pace and his discipline in  keeping it clean. He finished right in the position he inherited on the opening lap, P2, an excellent podium result.

Kimi Raikkonen saved Ferrari’s blushes with a stout drive to hoist himself up from an underwhelming P6 starting spot on the grid to a fine P3 podium finish. The veteran Finn, who has frankly had a perplexingly inconsistent season, found a measure of redemption in France by overtaking his teammate as well as Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo for that precious podium spot. To be fair, Ricciardo was hampered by debris in his front wing, which compromised his aero enough to force him to reluctantly cede P3 to Raikonnen late in the going. Nevertheless the affable Aussie had a strong run overall to come home P4 well ahead of Vettel.

Further back in the order, Kevin Magnusson added to what has been a very impressive season for him and his improving Haas with a solid P6 finish. Once again Magnussen outperformed his erratic teammate, Frenchman Romain Grosjean, who was involved in a separate opening lap contretemps, incurred a penalty and saw himself finish outside the points in P11. In fact, it was not good day for any of the French drivers at their home race, as Force India’s Esteban Ocon and Toro Rosso’s Charles Gasly got entangled at the start and took each other out in front of their disappointed countrymen. In better news for the French, Carlos Sainz nursed his factory Renault home to a P8 finish. While the Spaniard ran as high as P3 in his French mount early in the race, he suffered some power loss later on and was greatly aided by a late Virtual Safety Car to salvage that 8th place finish ahead of his teammate Nico Hulkenberg, who finished P9. The standout rookie Charles Leclerc took the last points paying position by coming home P10 for Sauber. While Leclerc felt afterwards he might have done better it was nevertheless another standout drive for the Monagast pilot, who is surely on Ferrari’s radar for a future seat in the big team.

Top 10 finishers of then French Grand Prix:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is but a week away and will be the second of an F1-first three in three weeks: the Austrian GP from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. Hope to see you then to find out whether the result in France was the start of renewed dominance by Hamilton and Mercedes or if Ferrari will fight back to recapture the momentum in what has so far been an enjoyably see-saw season!