Max Verstappen wins at Paul Ricard by passing rival Hamilton on the penultimate lap of a not so boring French GP.
A spectacular lap saw Verstappen take pole in Saturday’s qualifying with Hamilton almost three tenths behind in P2. Teammates Bottas and Perez qualified P3 and P4 respectively in a session that saw two red flags.
After an eventful Baku, only four points separated Verstappen and Hamilton in the drivers’ championship, so a great start was crucial for both the drivers’ and their teammates. With Mercedes also trailing in the constructors’ championship, the race was well and truly on.
At first, Max seemed to have a good start with Sir Lewis close but still behind in P2. However, his lead didn’t last long as Verstappen ran wide leaving Hamilton to create a gap upfront. Lots of drivers were then heard complaining of lack of grip and tyre degradation possibly due to earlier rain removing some of the rubber left by the previous F3 race
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Bottas was then close to within a second of Max as Sergio was seen dropping off the pace of the pack perhaps to preserve his tyres. Despite grievances of hot tyres and graining, the race leader Sir Lewis Hamilton extended the gap to Verstappen and seemed in a strong position to win the race. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the first to pit on lap 15 for hard tyres - while necessary this was surprising as many expected it to be a one-stop race. Out of the top four, Bottas was the first to stop for fresh tyres on lap 18 with Verstappen pitting one lap later with the gap between the two shortened. Hamilton then came in for his hard tyres only to come out behind Max Verstappen with Perez staying out long on the mediums.
A battle between Verstappen, Hamilton and Bottas then ensued with the two Mercedes drivers hunting down the Red Bull with DRS enabled. Both Hamilton and Bottas were very close to each other as well as Max but they were unable to get close enough to execute a successful overtake. Front runner, Checo, pitted on lap 24, coming out in P4 behind Valterri. After dropping back slightly, Lewis came back once again at Max, who said ‘we can’t keep this up for much longer.’
Hamilton and Bottas fell back once again with Verstappen leading with a 2.5-second time advantage to Sir Lewis. Owing to this, Red Bull decided to pit Max again for a set of mediums, feeling confident this would allow them to pass and stay ahead of both Mercedes drivers. Now in P4, Max had some work to do.
Verstappen quickly caught teammate Sergio, who moved out of the way, with Bottas next up. Max promptly set about catching Valterri with DRS helping to close the gap. Yet, it was Bottas, who was struggling with his tyres, running wide that presented Verstappen with a key opportunity to overtake. An unhappy Valterri could then be heard over the radio asking why the team didn’t listen to him when he previously suggested a two-stop strategy.
Verstappen was now able to hunt down Hamilton, though lapped cars and possible tyre wear led to Max not catching the leader as quickly as some anticipated. However, Hamilton’s time advantage started to quickly decrease in the last laps with Verstappen now in range of DRS. On lap 52, Verstappen sailed past Sir Lewis to claim victory in an unexpectedly exciting French Grand Prix. His teammate Checo finished third after also passing a frustrated Bottas. This saw Red Bull strengthen their lead in both championships with Verstappen now 12 points ahead of Hamilton in the drivers’ standings.
The racing continues for the second round in this triple-header with two races at Red Bull Racing’s home Grand Prix in Austria - will the Bull’s have a home advantage or be shot down by the silver arrows?
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