@LewisHamilton cruises to dominant #FrenchGP victory #F1

Lewis Hamilton reigned supreme at the French Grand Prix and reclaimed the championship lead after title-rival Sebastian Vettel collided with Valtteri Bottas at turn one.

 

 

Hamilton finished with a comfortable gap over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to take a 14-point lead in the Driver’s Championship over Vettel, who hit trouble and recovered home in fifth.

 

Vettel finished ahead of Bottas, who was spun by the German at the first corner on a dramatic opening lap.

 

Vettel made a lightning run off the line and ran alongside Bottas on the rundown to turn one but backed off only to lock his front-left tyre and collided into the Mercedes.

 

That broke Vettel’s front wing in the process and gave Bottas a left-rear puncture, with both cars hobbling back to the pits to switch for the yellow-branded soft rubber, Vettel attempted to race on into turns three and four lightly touched Romain Grosjean’s Haas VF-18, although both drivers pushed on.

 

At the same corner, Pierre Gasly lost the rear of his Honda-powered Toro Rosso and went into the back of Esteban Ocon’s Force India, forcing both drivers out of their home Grand Prix on the opening lap.

 

This deployed the Safety Car, under which Hamilton held the lead from Verstappen, who took a trip through the run-off area to avoid the Bottas-Vettel tangle, and Carlos Sainz, who went around the outside of Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull at turn two when the Australian ran deep into turn one.

 

When the race resumed on the fifth lap, Hamilton rapidly built a solid lead with Verstappen in a comfortable second as Ricciardo remained behind Sainz for a few laps before reclaiming third.

 

The Renault fell further back when Kimi Raikkonen recovered from an excursion into the run-off area to avoid the turn one mess.

 

The Spaniard held fifth for the next 12 laps of the race or more before Vettel, who switched to softs and charged through the pack after emerging at the back of the field behind the safety car, made his way back into the top five.

 

Vettel’s great pace on the fresher rubber briefly put him in a podium position when Ricciardo and Raikkonen stopped halfway through the Grand Prix, but with the German’s tyres degrading and a five-second time penalty inflicted after the Bottas collision – was easy pickings.

 

After six laps Ricciardo on the fresher softs, reclaimed third place by taking a tighter line through the fast-sweeping double turns 10 and 11, and another half a dozen laps later, Raikkonen on new supersofts, moved ahead of his team-mate to grab fourth.

 

The Finn used his softer and fresher tyres to his advantage to catch Ricciardo with seven laps remaining, then made a few unsuccessful attempts at overtaking around the outside of the first and third corners.

 

Raikkonen then got by the Australian after slipstreaming the Red Bull down the Mistral Straight into the turn eight chicane to take the final podium place.

 

Ricciardo finished more than half a minute ahead of Vettel, who was struggling with his tyres but was given a free pitstop when Mercedes called Bottas to stop again.

 

This relegated the Finn down the field but recovered back to seventh on fresher supersoft rubber as Kevin Magnussen kept calm under pressure to finish sixth.

 

Both drivers made their way passed Sainz’ RS18 as the Spaniard slowed with a loss of power, although he managed to hold onto eighth place and ahead of Renault team-mate Nico Hulkenberg at the team’s home Grand Prix.

 

Sauber’s Charles Leclerc who took qualifying by storm, ended the race in the final points position after running inside the top six after the first corner chaos.

 

The other Haas VF-18 of Grosjean finished outside the top ten in 11^th place and ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne who was 12^th and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson who took 13^th.

 

The sole Toro Rosso in the race Brendon Hartley finished 14^th and in-front of Williams Martini Racing’s Sergey Sirotkin who was 15^th.

 

The other Williams FW41 of Lance Stroll was a late retiree from the race after his front-left tyre blew at the high-speed Signes corner, having completed 47 laps following an earlier stop under the safety car.

 

Force India’s Sergio Perez was the other casualty, having battled for the points before an engine problem stopped the Mexican in his tracks, though McLaren’s Fernando Alonso stopped on the final lap after a suspension issue hit the Spaniard whilst running at the rear. Alonso had spun earlier whilst being passed by Vettel’s Ferrari.

 

The Top Three

 

1^st. Lewis Hamilton – #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W09 EQ Power +: “Grateful for a solid weekend. My guys continuously push the boundaries and never give up. This is a great day. I enjoyed the race, for me it’s the best French GP I’ve ever had. I haven’t thought about [the championship lead], but that’s where I want to be.”

 

2^nd. Max Verstappen – #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer, RB14: “I tried to follow Lewis, obviously he was controlling the pace. But I enjoyed the race. I didn’t have to work very hard for it, but it’s always very nice to be on the podium. At the start everybody was trying to get a position, and people can make mistakes. That happens.”

 

3^rd. Kimi Raikkonen – #7, Scuderia Ferrari, SF71-H:  “It felt quite slippery at the start. I chose the outside, but it was the wrong way and I had to slow down a bit. I got a bit blocked with all the mayhem that happened. Then it was a decent recovery, long stint, and things worked well. We had enough speed and managed to get the podium.”

 

 

Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix De France Race Results Classification (After 53 laps)

 

POS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	GAP
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	53	1h30m11.385s
2	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	53	7.090s
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	53	25.888s
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	53	34.736s
5	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	53	1m01.935s
6	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	53	1m19.364s
7	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	53	1m20.632s
8	Carlos Sainz	Renault Sport F1 Team	53	1m27.184s
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team	53	1m31.989s
10	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	53	1m33.873s
11	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	52	1 Lap
12	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	52	1 Lap
13	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	52	1 Lap
14	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	52	1 Lap
15	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing	52	1 Lap
16	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	50	3 Laps
17	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing	48	Tyre
–	Sergio Perez	Sahara Force India F1 Team	27	Power Unit
–	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	0	Collision
–	Esteban Ocon	Sahara Force India F1 Team	0	Collision

 

2018 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship Standings

1. Lewis Hamilton – 145 Points.
2. Sebastian Vettel – 131 Points.
3. Daniel Ricciardo – 96 Points.
4. Valtteri Bottas – 92 Points.
5. Kimi Raikkonen – 83 Points.
6. Max Verstappen – 68 Points.
7. Nico Hulkenberg – 34 Points.
8. Fernando Alonso – 32 Points.
9. Carlos Sainz – 28 Points.
10. Kevin Magnussen – 27 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 237 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 214 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 164 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 62 Points.
5. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 40 Points.
6. Sahara Force India F1 Team – 28 Points.
7. Haas F1 Team – 27 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 19 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 13 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 4 Points.

 

Round nine of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship heads straight to the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria next weekend, the second part of F1’s first triple-header in history for the Formula 1 Eyetime Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2018 from Friday June 29 to Sunday July 01.