Tag Archives: French Grand Prix

2022 F1 Grand Prix of France — Results & aftermath

Verstappen gifted win after Leclerc crashes out from lead; Hamilton P2, Russell P3 for first Merc double podium of ’22; Sainz rallies from rear to P5 despite Ferrari indecision

In a deja vu sequence horrible enough to turn the stomach of any tifosi, Sunday’s French Grand Prix saw championship contender Charles Leclerc retire from the lead of a race for the third time this Formula 1 season, only this time it was down to the kind of driver error that has more often bedeviled his teammate and not the mechanical malfunctions that have plagued Leclerc’s campaign. After starting from the pole and successfully fending off the hard charging P2 Red Bull of Max Verstappen during the opening stanza of this 53-lap tilt form the eye-wateringly busy and colorful Paul Ricard Circuit in sweltering southern Le Castellet, the Monegasque inexplicably spun off at Turn 11 on Lap 18 and binned his blood red Ferrari nose first into the tire barriers after sailing through the theoretically grippy and definitely trippy run-off area. Unable to grab reverse and get out of that predicament, Leclerc howled in primal rage on the radio, knowing his race had unceremoniously ended even before his first pit stop, not to mention the further damage to his championship aspirations due to yet another DNF. Verstappen, on the other hand, was gifted a lead he would not relinquish for the remainder of the race. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Leclerc on a day when his was clearly the fastest car on track and, combined with Verstappen’s victory, saw his deficit to the Dutchman in the Drivers’ Standings balloon to 63 points. Between reliability issues and pilot error, Ferrari have left a ton of points on the table this season despite being every bit as quick as Red Bull when they go toe-to-toe. Leclerc and everyone at the Scuderia will be looking to put this weekend behind them in hurry and try to salvage a solid double points result next week in Hungary before the summer break.

Leclerc’s misfortune was good news not only for Verstappen but also for Lewis Hamilton and team Mercedes. With the lead Ferrari out of the picture and the second Prancing Horse of Carlos Sainz forced to fight his way back from a P19 start after engine component change penalties, Hamilton inherited P2 after a round of Lap 19 Safety Car pit stops. This was after the English seven-time World Champ made a decisive move on the number two Red Bull of Sergio Perez to take P3 away form him on the opening lap. While Hamilton had nothing for Verstappen and would eventually come home over 10-seconds behind Max, he was able to manage his tires nicely and keep Perez behind him to secure that happy second place finish. In fact, Checo struggled all weekend, perhaps due the broiling hot track temps here in the south of France. Not only could he not match the pace of his teammate but he struggled against both Mercedes in the race, getting passed not only by Hamilton on Lap 1 without being able to answer back but by the second Silver Arrow of George Russell on Lap 51 after seemingly being lulled to sleep by a Virtual Safety Car. When the VSC ended, Russell went full tilt boogie but Perez seemed to hesitate before putting his foot down, making him easy meat for the feisty young Brit. Russell held off Perez’s Red Bull for the final two laps and secured P3 and the last step on the podium, the first time that Mercedes have had two drivers in the podium places all year. While the Mercs are improving, it’s still glaringly obvious they are the third fastest team in 2022 and need either Ferrari or Red Bull to have issues to get a top three finish, and maybe serious trouble for both for a lucky win. Still, credit where credit is due: when the elite top two teams have faltered, the Silver Arrows have been there to pounce.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

The second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz had an epic if bizarre race on his way to a P5 result. After starting from P19 due to those engine change penalties, the Spaniard patiently carved his way through the field on Hard Pirelli rubber even while the vast majority of runners were on the softer, quicker Medium tires. By Lap 13, Sainz had passed Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll for P10 to put himself back into the points. He then got a paradoxical advantage when his teammate crashed out and caused a Safety Car, diving for the pits along with the Mercedes duo and nearly everyone else not named Verstappen for what should theoretically have been the cheap pit stop time-wise. But the team were dinged for a clearly unsafe release, nearly colliding with Alex Albon’s Williams upon exiting their box after an already slow stop, and Sainz was assessed a 5-second penalty. Nevertheless, the Spaniard put his head down and again was an overtaking machine, passing McLaren’s Lando Norris for P6 on Lap 21 and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso for P5 on Lap 22. By Lap 30, he was on the gearbox of Russell and quickly dispatched him with aplomb for P4 . Next in Sainz’s sights was the P3 Red Bull of Perez. But the Ferrari braintrust now appeared confused as to whether to call in Sainz for another stop, as well as serving the penalty, or to leave him out on that rapidly aging set of Medium tires until the finish. Even as Sainz harassed Checo, the team were on the radio asking Sainz his opinion of their strategy options. Most amazingly, while Sainz was just setting up Perez for a pass he would complete on Lap 42 to take that coveted P3, the team were telling him to box. Sainz didn’t want to comply but eventually consented, the Ferrari pit wall more than a little worried about the potential for tire failure on the red hot track and the nightmare of a possible double-DNF, zero points day. When Sainz emerged from his second stop in P9, it was time once again for another passel of passes, which he impressively executed in such a decisive manner that he was able to fight all the way back up to P5 before the laps ran out. It was one of the more remarkable fifth place drives you could ever want to see, though the Monday debrief at Ferrari over their strategy calls should be an animated one.

Top 10 finishers of the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 53 1:30:02.112 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +10.587s 18
3 63 George Russell MERCEDES 53 +16.495s 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 53 +17.310s 12
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 53 +28.872s 11
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 53 +42.879s 8
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +52.026s 6
8 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 53 +56.959s 4
9 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +60.372s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 53 +62.549s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time — the Hungarian Grand Prix from the picturesque Hugaroring. It’s the last GP before the August break so everyone, especially Leclerc, will be looking to head to their vacations on a high note. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of France — Qualifying results

Ferrari team tactics earn pole for Leclerc at Paul Ricard; Verstappen P2, Perez P3 for Red Bull; Sainz still headed to the back after towing teammate to the front

Knowing that the Prancing Horse of Carlos Sainz would be starting the race from the rear due to engine penalties, Ferrari cleverly sacrificed the Spaniard’s effort in the service of his non-penalized teammate, Charles Leclerc, during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix. With the twin long straights of the eccentrically colorful Circuit Paul Ricard lending themselves to judicious use of the two car draft, Sainz was able to lead out Leclerc twice in Q3 and give his Monegasque teammate just that much of an edge over the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who was flying solo since Sergio Perez was trying to secure his own high grid position. It worked a treat, making the best of Sainz’s bad situation after a raft of replacements were required when his engine literally blew up at the last race in Austria, and earned Leclerc his first pole since way back in Round 8 at Azerbaijan. Sainz’s team-effort tow on Leclerc ended up being good enough for a .282 advantage over Verstappen by the time session ended, though with Perez settling in at P3 and Sainz heading to the rear it will be a two-to-one Red Bull advantage when the lights go out on Sunday. It should be fascinating to see what kind of strategy the Scuderia brain trust can come up with overnight to work Sainz up through the field and hopefully put him into play against team Red Bull’s race winning aspirations.

With Sainz sacrificing himself and not setting an actual quali time of his own, Mercedes Lewis Hamilton took advantage by setting the fourth fastest time and he will line up alongside Perez on the second row. His Silver Arrows teammate George Russell was pushed down to P6 on the grid, however, when McLaren’s Lando Norris put in a fierce final lap in Q3 and snatched P5 from his fellow Brit. Wily old Fernando Alonso looked good in setting the seventh fastest time of the final session and Yuki Tsunoda flew the flag for the underperforming AlphaTauri team by qualifying in P8. Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, who also took engine component replacement penalties for this weekend, ran no laps in Q3 and was classified in P10. But the Dane will also slide to the back of the field and into P20 alongside P19 Sainz to start tomorrow’s GP. That pair’s demotions elevated the lucky duo of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon to P9 and P10 on the grid respectively.

Top 10 qualifiers for the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:31.727 1:31.216 1:30.872 17
2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:31.891 1:31.990 1:31.176 14
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:32.354 1:32.120 1:31.335 20
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:33.041 1:32.274 1:31.765 19
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:32.672 1:32.777 1:32.032 14
6 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:33.109 1:32.633 1:32.131 20
7 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:32.819 1:32.631 1:32.552 17
8 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:33.394 1:32.836 1:32.780 20
9 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:32.297 1:31.081 DNF 10
10 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:32.756 1:32.649 9

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Penalty-effected starting grid is here.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Leclerc will be desperate to get away from the Red Bulls cleanly, establish a gap and hold on until the calvary in the form of Sainz arrives. Verstappen and Perez will need to avoid tripping over each other in their hot pursuit of the P1 Prancing Horse. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of France — Results & aftermath

Verstappen rides gutsy two-stop strategy to victory over Hamilton in France; Perez P3 with late overtake on Bottas

Red Bull’s young Dutch master Max Verstappen took advantage of his team’s mid-race decision to switch to a two-stop strategy and rode that strategic masterstroke to victory in the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard Circuit on Sunday. With tire degradation much worse than anticipated, the Red Bull pit wall decided to split their strategies between Verstappen and their second pilot, Sergio Perez, running Perez several laps longer than both rival Mercedes on the opening stint, while surprisingly calling in Verstappen for a second stop and switch back onto Pirelli Mediums on Lap 33. It was a high stakes gamble by the team’s race engineers, especially after Verstappen had retaken the lead over Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton while undercutting the English seven-time champion on his initial of tire change onto Hards on Lap 19. Although Verstappen lost track position and came out P4 when he emerged from his second stop, his Medium tires would not only be 11 laps fresher than Hamilton’s when the laps of this 53-lap contest wound down but would presumably deliver a performance advantage by virtue of their also being the softer compound to Hamilton’s aged Hard tires.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

And that’s exactly how it played out in the final stage of the race. While Mercedes were forced to pray and hope that they could use their second man Valterri Bottas to hold up Verstappen’s pursuit of P1, unlike Red Bull’s savvy decision making on the day hope and prayer is not a strategy. Perez graciously allowed Verstappen by to take over P3 on Lap 35 and the hunt for Hamilton was on. By Lap 44, Verstappen made easy work of P2 Bottas, who was livid with the Mercedes brain trust for not heeding his pleas to switch to a two-stop plan of their own earlier in the race. By Lap 51, Verstappen was right up to Hamilton’s gearbox and all the joy at Lewis’ opening lap capture of the lead when the pole-sitting Verstappen overcooked Turn 2 and slid off track seemed like ancient history. Verstappen pounced on the slowing Silver Arrow of his main championship rival and overtook Hamilton easily on the penultimate lap, streaking away down the road and towards a thrilling win that boosted his lead over Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings to twelve points. While Hamilton held on for P2, Bottas suffered the ignominy of being passed for the last podium position by Verstappen’s stablemate, Perez, making it an outstanding points haul for Red Bull at Paul Ricard and a bitter pill for mighty Mercedes to swallow. Between Verstappen’s initial undercut, which earned him back the lead when he reemerged from the pits ahead of Hamilton, the decision to split strategies by running Perez longer on his opening stint and then the brilliant call to switch to a two-stopper that ended up being the winning move, Red Bull made Mercedes’ normally sharp pit wall seem flat footed and pokey all day long. Lewis will still also be kicking himself for blowing the restart two week’s ago in Baku when Verstappen had already crashed out and the chance to score big points on him evaporated in a puff of locked up tire smoke.

With Bottas a disgruntled P4, team Mclaren were the happy best of the rest on Sunday. Lando Norris rode his team’s own long first stint strategy all the way up to a strong P5 finish, while Daniel Ricciardo had arguably his best race with his new team to come home a solid P6. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was in the mix with the other midfield runners all day but didn’t quite have the pace of the McLarens and finished P7. But the impressive young Frenchman did manage to fight of veteran Fernando Alonso’s Alpine effectively and Alonso had to settle for a P8 result. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll both managed to turn super long opening stints into points-paying P9 and P10 finishes respectively. After Vettel had started in P12 and Stroll was way back on the on the grid in P19, it made for very satisfying results for improving Aston Martin when the checkers flew. On the other side of the satisfaction equation, Ferrari had a miserable race, converting Carlos Sainz’s P5 and Charles Leclerc’s P7 starts into P11 and P16 finishes respectively for a big fat goose egg for the Scuderia on the day. That will go down as well with the honchos in Maranello as a plate of buttered noodles with ketchup for lunch would at the nearby trattoria.

Top 10 finishers of the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 1:27:25.770 26
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 +2.904s 18
3 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 53 +8.811s 15
4 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +14.618s 12
5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +64.032s 10
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 53 +75.857s 8
7 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 53 +76.596s 6
8 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 53 +77.695s 4
9 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +79.666s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 53 +91.946s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

With the French Grand Prix actually the first of three consecutive race weekends in a row, the next two contests on this busy part of the calendar will be on Red Bull’s home turf at the eponymous Red Bull Ring, beginning with next weekend’s Styrian GP. Hope to see you then to see if Max and his team can keep up their momentum and keep Mercedes and Hamilton on the back foot!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of France — Qualifying results

Verstappen grabs pole for Red Bull at Paul Ricard, Perez P4; Hamilton P2 & Bottas P3 for Mercedes

The 2021 F1 title tilt continued to distill down to the two top drivers on the two top teams, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rebounded from a DNF at the last race in Azerbaijan to grab pole at the psychedelic Paul Ricard circuit during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s French Gran Prix. The flying Dutchman pipped his main title rival, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, by around three-tenths on his final flying lap in Q3. Hamilton was also seeking redemption after blowing a sure podium and perhaps victory at Baku two weeks ago when he left a break bias control on by mistake on the final restart and slid off the track and out of the points. The English seven-time champ posted a solid time good enough for P2 and a starting spot alongside Verstappen at the front of the grid, as the two resumed their back and forth battle for supremacy that seems certain to last all year long. While Verstappen and Red Bull had the one lap pace today it’s an open question as to whether they can match Hamilton’s race pace when the lights go out on Sunday.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Hamilton’s Silver Arrows teammate Valtteri Bottas posted a very good P3 qualifying result and appeared positively giddy to have left the street circuits of Monaco and Baku behind. That put the embattled Finn one slot ahead of Verstappen’s stablemate, Sergio Perez, who will start P4 two weeks after inheriting the victory in Azerbaijan when Verstappen crashed out late in the race with tire failure. With the front four a full on Red Bull-Mercedes mix and match, look for some intense dicing on the opening lap and perhaps one or more of the top contenders getting pushed wide on the acres of multi-colored abrasive runoff areas on this most unique and frankly strange circuit in the south of France.

Behind the elite quartet, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz bested his teammate Charles Leclerc P5 to P7. The rare subpar result  by the Monegasque also ended Leclerc’s two-race pole-setting streak. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly managed to nail his last opportunity in Q3 to set the sixth fastest lap after having his previous best effort deleted for exceeding track limits. The McLarens of Lando Norris and Daily Ricciardo qualified P8 and P10 respectively, while the veteran Fernando Alonso used all of his copious experience to over-perform and drag his Alpine up to a decent P9 starting spot.

Top 10 qualifiers for the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:31.001 1:31.080 1:29.990 16
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:31.237 1:30.788 1:30.248 20
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:31.669 1:30.735 1:30.376 16
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:31.560 1:30.971 1:30.445 16
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:32.079 1:31.146 1:30.840 19
6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:31.898 1:31.353 1:30.868 22
7 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:32.209 1:31.567 1:30.987 20
8 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:31.733 1:31.542 1:31.252 18
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:32.158 1:31.549 1:31.340 17
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:32.181 1:31.615 1:31.382 21

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live at 9AM Eastern on ESPN here in the States. A week after both men scored zero points, look for a ding dong battle between Verstappen and Hamilton in this latest high speed test of their respective title aspirations. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2019 F1 Grand Prix of France — Results & aftermath

Hamilton romps to dominant victory in France, Bottas a distant P2; Leclerc P3, Vettel P5 as Ferrari’s hopes dim

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton was untouchable at Circuit Paul Riccard as he went on to dominate the French Grand Prix from pole and blow away the field for a dominant win on Sunday. On the hunt for his remarkable sixth F1 title the Englishman scored the Grand Slam in this eighth round of the World Championship — pole position, fastest lap, leading all race laps and the win — and aced his nearest competitor, teammate Valtteri Bottas in ostensibly the same equipment, by a whopping 18 seconds to the checkered flag. It was Hamilton’s fourth win on the trot and he has now won six out of the eight contests so far in 2019 and already leads Bottas by 36 Drivers’ points. That’s bad news for anyone hoping that either Bottas or Ferrari would take down the most dominant driver of this new turbo hybrid era, as man and machine once again look to be in perfect harmony and Hamilton is beginning to demoralize his closest rivals.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

With Bottas’s performance fading after a splitting the first four races with his peerless Silver Arrows rival, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel is also showing signs of losing the metal war to Lewis. After a controversial penalty at the Canadian GP stripped him of victory two weeks ago the German four-time champ seemed to be suffering the psychological hangover during a very poor qualifying run on Saturday that saw Vettel related to a P7 start from the grid. While Vettel raced hard and kept it clean he was only able to claw back two positions to come home a rather tepid P5. His younger teammate Charles Leclerc finished where he qualified, P3, an encouraging sign for the Monegasque after some inconsistent quali runs lately. But it was all a bit of cold comfort for the legendary Scuderia from Maranello, who have been outclassed for the most part by mighty Mercedes and have seen potential victories in Bahrain and Canada undone by mechanical reliability and driver error respectively. While the Ferrari camp were still keeping their heads high and talking up their chances for major improvements going forward it’s becoming harder to see that happening because Mercedes, already the dominant car, will hardly be resting on their laurels as the summer moves along.

Further back in the pack, Max Verstappen did his usual fine work to finish ahead of Vettel in P4 but the Red Bull simply doesn’t have the pace to compete for victory unless one of the front running teams has a major mishap. Continue reading →

2019 F1 Grand Prix of France — Qualifying results

Mercedes’ Hamilton seizes pole at Paul Ricard to keep momentum going, fading Bottas P2; Leclerc third fastest for Ferrari but Vettel’s woes continue with subpar P7 time

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton extended his hot streak by laying down a dominant lap for pole at the colorful and quite windy Circuit Paul Ricard during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix. The English championship points leader came in having won three in a row and five out of the first seven rounds. That torrid run includes his controversial victory at Montreal two weeks ago that saw Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel demoted from a dominant win via a time penalty for unsafe reentry after cutting a chicane. Hamilton is not only looking to demoralize and psych out Vettel but also put his ambitious teammate Valterri Bottas back in his place. The Finn looked up for a Rosberg-like challenge to Hamilton’s supremacy after splitting two of the first four GPs to start the season. But since then Bottas has seen his Mercedes stablemate pull away in dominant fashion and he could do no better than a slightly shaky P2 time as the mistral seemed to play its tricks on his Silver Arrow here in the south of France.

For Ferrari, it was another mixed bag in a season in which they have struggled to get both their cars to perform at a high level simultaneously during qualifying. Continue reading →

2018 F1 Grand Prix of France — Results & aftermath

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:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 53 1:30:11.385 25
2 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER 53 +7.090s 18
3 7 Kimi Räikkönen FERRARI 53 +25.888s 15
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER 53 +34.736s 12
5 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 53 +61.935s 10
6 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 53 +79.364s 8
7 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 53 +80.632s 6
8 55 Carlos Sainz RENAULT 53 +87.184s 4
9 27 Nico Hulkenberg RENAULT 53 +91.989s 2
10 16 Charles Leclerc SAUBER FERRARI 53 +93.873s 1

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!

2018 F1 Grand Prix of France — Qualifying results

Hamilton takes pole, Bottas P2 for resurgent Mercedes front row lockout in F1 return to Paul Ricard; Vettel P3 for Ferrari

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton appeared back on the pace in Forumla 1’s return to France two weeks after their disappointing showing in Canada. Championship contender Lewis Hamilton, who lost his points lead after two lackluster outings in Monaco and Montreal, put his newly upgraded engine to good use on the strange and colorful Paul Ricard circuit, pipping his teammate Valtteri Bottas for pole by just over a tenth. It made for a satisfying front row lockout for the Silver Arrows and, despite the somewhat unknown nature of a track that F1 has been absent from for 28 years, puts the factory Mercedes team in good position to reclaim winning momentum come Sunday.

Points leader Sebastian Vettel qualified third for Ferrari, which appeared down on overall power to the new generation of Mercedes engines. Worse still for the Scuderia, their second driver Kimi Raikkonen couldn’t get it together and only mustered the 6th best time. Raikkonen saw himself out-qualified by the trimmed-out Red Bull’s of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, who will start P4 and P5 respectively. Carlos Sainz carried the colors for the French Renault team by qualifying an excellent P7. Charles Leclerc showed once again that he is a young driver to watch as he willed his usually pokey Sauber up to the eight grid spot. And Haas rounded out the top 10 starters, with Kevin Magnussen starting P9 and Romain Grosjean qualifying tenth fastest. However, the Frenchman Grosjean rather took the bloom off his achievement by having a lurid spin that led to a Red Flag period mid-Q3 but thankfully only damaged the Haas’s front wing. In Grosjean’s case, Paul Ricard’s unique and ubiquitous red and blue “friction stripes” in lieu of gravel traps showed their slowing power to excellent effect.

A week after winning Le Mans Fernando Alonso returned to the reality of a surprisingly poor McLaren machine. Both he and his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne failed to make it out of Q1, a decisive setback for McLaren after some small signs of hope this season. Williams horror season also continued, as both their cars were inexplicably the slowest in the field.

Top 10 qualifiers or the French GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:31.271 1:30.645 1:30.029 19
2 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:31.776 1:31.227 1:30.147 17
3 5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI 1:31.820 1:30.751 1:30.400 22
4 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER 1:31.531 1:30.818 1:30.705 20
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER 1:31.910 1:31.538 1:30.895 20
6 7 Kimi Räikkönen FERRARI 1:31.567 1:30.772 1:31.057 22
7 55 Carlos Sainz RENAULT 1:32.394 1:32.016 1:32.126 23
8 16 Charles Leclerc SAUBER FERRARI 1:32.538 1:32.055 1:32.635 22
9 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:32.169 1:31.510 1:32.930 24
10 8 Romain Grosjean HAAS FERRARI 1:32.083 1:31.472 DNF 20

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 10AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then!