Congratulations to Max Verstappen and Red Bull on snatching that win on the penultimate lap - and commiserations to Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, who are being asked some serious questions this season. It promises to get even more exciting as the season goes on - the next race will be in Austria next Sunday. Formula One is thoroughly watchable again. Thanks for reading today - and see you next time.
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Read Giles Richards’s race report here - hot off the press:
Rosberg adds some thoughts on Verstappen’s overtake of Hamilton inside the final couple of laps: “Unusual from Lewis ... I mean ... close the damn door, no? Usually Lewis is the best one-to-one racer and I’m surprised Lewis didn’t at least try - try and brake late, keep it on the outside. A little bit soft from Lewis there.”
It did feel like Verstappen made that look very easy. After it had taken so long for Verstappen to catch him, you may have expected a bit more resistance from Hamilton. But given the state of Hamilton’s tyres, the game was probably up regardless.
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Nico Rosberg gives his opinion on Verstappen’s mistake on lap one: “Turn one, it was just clear that maybe Max took a bit of unnecessary risk and speed going in there, maybe a bit of lack of preparation a little bit, because it was 40km/h of wind from the back, so it was always going to happen in turn one, it was going to be super-low grip. So a bit of a mistake there, but of course from then on, just an awesome job from Red Bull, and I think some rather big mistakes from Mercedes on strategy.”
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The top 10:
Confirmation of the top 10 finishers in France 👀#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/5q92zslAfB
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 20, 2021
Hamilton talks to Martin Brundle on Sky: “Congrats to Max, he did a great job today ... they just had the better power, er, strength, all weekend. I just think considering we had such a difficult Friday, I’m really happy with today’s result. Of course we didn’t win, and we were in the lead, but I had no tyres left at the end ... still, it was a good race.
“We’ve gotta find some pace, that’s for sure ... most of the time we lost today was just on the straights ... we’ve got to dig deep and find out where that is ... we didn’t know how strong the undercut was going to be ... what was really surprising was to run out that front tyre early on, but obviously they had a good strategy. The only option I really had was to stay out ... and hope the tyres held together.”
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The race winner Verstappen speaks: “I enjoyed it at the end, yes. At the beginning, it was super difficult out there with the wind ... it was difficult to keep the car stable ... when we made the call to do a two-stop, luckily in the end that paid off. But we had to work hard for it, but yes, of course, very rewarding.
“It was difficult, there were quite a lot of back markers to go through, but luckily they all did well [ie: got out of the way], so we could have a good fight to the end.”
Verstappen is asked what happened on the first lap, when he gifted the lead to Hamilton by going off track at turn two: “I just lost the rear... I just tried to correct it, correct it, correct it, but it just kept going. As you can see the whole race we [Verstappen and Hamilton] were fighting each other, so ... it will be like this for the rest of the season.”
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Drivers' standings - top five
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 131
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 119
Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) 84
Lando Norris (McLaren) 76
Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 59
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Final standings
- 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing
- 2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +2.904
- 3 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +8.811
- 4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +14.618
- 5 Lando Norris McLaren +64.032
- 6 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +75.857
- 7 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +76.596
- 8 Fernando Alonso Alpine +77.695
- 9 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +79.666
- 10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +91.946
- 11 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +99.337
- 12 George Russell Williams 1L
- 13 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1L
- 14 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1L
- 15 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing 1L
- 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1L
- 17 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing 1L
- 18 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1L
- 19 Mick Schumacher Haas F1 Team 1L
- 20 Nikita Mazepin Haas F1 Team 1L
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Max Verstappen, who’s been having problems with his radio, says: “I hope you guys can hear me ... but what a race, man. Thank you so much ... so good!” Verstappen also gets the fastest lap.
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Lap 53/53: Max Verstappen wins the French grand prix for Red Bull!
What a battle. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes’s one-pitstop gamble so nearly paid off for them ... but having made two stops Max Verstappen, in the Red Bull, gradually ate into his rival’s lead on his fresher tyres. Verstappen’s error on lap one handed Hamilton the lead early in the race - after which Red Bull undercut Hamilton and Mercedes with their first pit stop to grab the lead back in dramatic style. It’s all over and Verstappen has taken a narrow, thrilling race win to stretch his lead in the drivers’ standings!
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Lap 52/53: Verstappen leads! What a race. He made that look easy ... He speeds past his British rival on the outside and now he just needs to stay on track to bring this home ...
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Lap 52/53: Hamilton still leads down the start/finish straight. Verstappen is on his tail. Just over half a second behind. The crowd have had value for money today, it’s been a great battle.
Lap 51/53: How is Hamilton going to respond? How can he hold Verstappen off?
“I’ll leave you to it,” says someone at Red Bull to Verstappen on the radio. Probably a good idea. The gap is under a second.
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Lap 50/53: Verstappen has Hamilton in his sights. “OK Max, that’s your man ahead ... four laps remaining,” his team tell him on the radio. The gap is down to 1.6sec. Exciting times.
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Lap 49/53: The gap is under three seconds! And now two seconds! Verstappen is closing in! Meanwhile, Pérez takes Bottas and moves third and into the podium places.
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Lap 48/53: There are two back markers between Hamilton and Verstappen. Hamilton loses some time after he hits a kerb. The gap is 3.5sec with five laps to go ...
Lap 47/53: Hamilton is holding off Verstappen at the moment. Clearly, the Dutchman’s tyres are deteriorating fast. It’s five seconds between the drivers. Hamilton is driving superbly on these older tyres.
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Lap 46/53: Bottas was just swearing angrily at his Mercedes team over the radio about the pit strategy. “I told you it was going to be a two-stopper.”
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Lap 45/53: Vettel is up to ninth, having taken Sainz. Stroll is up to 11th in the Aston Martin. Verstappen is 4.6sec behind Hamilton.
Lap 44/53: Verstappen overtakes Bottas in style! He is now second, and is bearing down on his title rival Hamilton ...
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Lap 44/53: Verstappen is right behind Bottas! “This is critical now ... this is going to decide who wins the race, how long it takes Verstappen to get past Bottas,” says Brundle.
Lap 43/53: Ten laps to go - this is shaping up to be a thrilling end to the French grand prix ...
Lap 43/53: Live standings:
- 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Leader 1
- 2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +4.207 1
- 3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +5.614 2
- 4 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +10.586 1
- 5 Lando Norris McLaren +58.559 1
- 6 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +64.188 1
- 7 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +68.752 1
- 8 Fernando Alonso Alpine +71.427 1
- 9 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +76.423 1
- 10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +79.465 1
- 11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +85.027 1
- 12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +85.585 1
- 13 George Russell Williams +88.894 1
- 14 Esteban Ocon Alpine +90.898 1
- 15 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing +93.601 1
- 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1 L 2
- 17 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing 1 L 1
- 18 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1 L 1
- 19 Mick Schumacher Haas F1 Team 1 L 1
- 20 Nikita Mazepin Haas F1 Team 1 L 1
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Lap 41/53: Can second-placed Bottas prove to be the key man here if he’s able to hold Verstappen’s progress?
Lap 39/53: Verstappen keeps coming, and keeps coming ... He is 6.3sec behind Hamilton and about two seconds behind Bottas now. Is this all building to a confrontation between the title rivals in the last few laps?
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Lap 37/53: From the in-car camera view it’s clear how gingerly Hamilton is taking the corners, desperately trying to save his tyres ... but Verstappen is catching him all the time. He is under eight seconds behind now. Meanwhile there is a big problem with Verstappen’s radio, and he can’t communicate with his team in the pits.
“See if you can move your microphone at the next available opportunity,” they advise. Helpful!
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Lap 36/53: Verstappen is up to third. He is only 10 seconds behind Hamilton.
“Is he going to catch me at this stage?” asks Hamilton on the radio.
“Probably Lewis ... it depends how hard it is for him to get past Valtteri,” comes the answer from the team.
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Lap 35/53: Verstappen is flying around the circuit. His last lap was two seconds quicker than Hamilton’s. Ted Kravitz speculates that maybe Hamilton has always been intending to go for a one-stop strategy, and use his tyre-preservation skills to bring it home.
Lap 34/53: Hamilton now leads the French grand prix. Bottas is four seconds back. Then Perez in third and Verstappen is fourth: Verstappen is 18sec behind his title rival, who will presumably be coming in for a change of tyres shortly.
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Lap 32/53: Verstappen pits for the second time! The Dutchman is down to fourth.
“Lewis, you’ve got 21 laps remaining, let us know what you think,” Hamilton is asked on the radio. Surely he’ll be pitting soon ...
LAP 33/53
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 20, 2021
Verstappen pits, puts on a set of medium tyres #FrenchGP 🇫🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/CCBMDlIkaU
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Lap 31/53: Could Pérez of Red Bull go for a one-stop strategy? He stayed out for nine laps longer than his teammate. Hamilton is being told to ease off a bit as the team don’t think his tyres last if he keeps pushing as hard as he is. Hamilton is 2.5sec behind Verstappen now.
Lap 29/53: Bottas has apparently suggested a two-stop strategy to the team. At the moment, about 2.5sec separates the top three: Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas. Brundle observes in commentary that if Mercedes decide to go for a split strategy, with Bottas pitting twice and Hamilton once, it could give Red Bull a problem in how they react.
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Lap 28/53 - live standings:
- 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1
- 2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.644 1
- 3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +2.482 1
- 4 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +18.080 1
- 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +33.964 1
- 6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +43.481 1
- 7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +48.579 1
- 8 Esteban Ocon Alpine +49.649 1
- 9 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +50.614 1
- 10 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +51.371 1
- 11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +51.416 1
- 12 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing +52.468 1
- 13 Lando Norris McLaren +53.260 1
- 14 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing +55.716 1
- 15 Fernando Alonso Alpine +56.262 1
- 16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +61.632 1
- 17 George Russell Williams +64.698 1
- 18 Nicholas Latifi Williams +72.019 1
- 19 Nikita Mazepin Haas F1 Team +76.565 1
- 20 Mick Schumacher Haas F1 Team +90.108 1
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Lap 26/53: Regarding Hamilton’s stop that allowed Verstappen back in front, Mercedes have apparently told Sky - “The undercut is huge here.” Meaning that at this circuit, a driver can gain particular advantage by pitting a few laps earlier than their rival, and benefitting from fresh tyres and higher speeds while the other team delays their stop. That was plain for all to see when Verstappen snuck ahead of Hamilton as the Briton emerged from the pitlane.
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Lap 24/53: Pérez pits! He will be on the hard tyres now and re-emerges in fourth place. Verstappen leads the French grand prix. This is exciting: Verstappen’s first-lap howler handed the initiative to Hamilton and Mercedes, but something went wrong with Mercedes’ pitstop, and Verstappen was able to sneak back ahead of his title rival. Hamilton is 0.8sec behind in second place.
Lap 24/53: “Perhaps especially if there is rain and there are multiple pit-stops, how much do you think this will be won on the track and how much in the pit-lane?” asks David Wall on email. “Unless Mercedes have been putting in some serious practice then their recent pit-lane form would hand the advantage to Red Bull in that case.”
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Lap 23/53: Bottas is fourth, narrowly behind his teammate Hamilton. Norris is now fifth, Vettel sixth.
Lap 22/53: Verstappen, on the radio, sounds incredibly animated about something or other and his team ask him to calm down. Pérez leads now by 6.5secs - Hamilton is just a second behind ...
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Lap 20/53: Wow! Hamilton emerges from the pit lane, but Verstappen is flying down the straight as he does so, and fractionally pips him to lead into turn one! Sergio Pérez now leads for Red Bull, his teammate Verstappen is second, with Hamilton third! That was a stinker for Mercedes and for Hamilton. In the pit lane, Toto Wolff looks ashed-faced as he watches his monitor. “OK Lewis ... I’m not really sure what happened there, mate,” says one of the Mercedes team on the radio.
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Lap 19/53: Verstappen does pit! It’s a good stop too, not sub-two seconds, but good ... Hamilton still leads, he is yet to pit, but will be coming in soon.
Lap 18/53: Now Sainz and Gasly come in ... Ricciardo takes them both while they stop, so that was a well-timed stop for McLaren. Verstappen expected to pit very soon.
Lap 17/53. Ricciardo pits in his McLaren. Ferrari’s Leclerc is down to 16th after his stop, and Ricciardo re-emerges from his stop in 17th. Will we get some rain?
Afternoon @LukeMcLaughlin, I think my head says Max, my heart says Lewis. But then Pirelli had a part to play last time. I think like many fans, we'd love to see some rain to spice things up. That'll play into Lewis' hands, and Alonso will also fancy himself in it.
— Guy Hornsby (@GuyHornsby) June 20, 2021
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Lap 16/53: Nearly three seconds’ lead for Hamilton now!
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Lap 15/53: Leclerc of Ferrari pits for hard tyres. He won’t be the last ... It looks like several teams are going to abandon their original one-stop strategy.
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Lap 14/53 - live standings:
- 1 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes
- 2 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing +2.250
- 3 Valtteri BOTTAS Mercedes +5.148
- 4 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +8.528
- 5 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +24.041
- 6 Pierre GASLY AlphaTauri +24.984
- 7 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +26.533
- 8 Daniel RICCIARDO McLaren+27.307
- 9 Lando NORRIS McLaren +28.047
- 10 Sebastian VETTEL Aston Martin +30.164
- 11 Fernando ALONSO Alpine +31.547
- 12 Esteban OCON Alpine +32.528
- 13 Antonio GIOVINAZZI Alfa Romeo Racing +34.093
- 14 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +34.527
- 15 Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN Alfa Romeo Racing +35.736
- 16 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +36.994
- 17 George RUSSELL Williams +40.152
- 18 Nicholas LATIFI Williams +41.153
- 19 Nikita MAZEPIN Haas F1 Team +47.264
- 20 Mick SCHUMACHER Haas F1 Team +52.854
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Lap 13/53: Hamilton stretches his lead in the Mercedes to 2.2secs. There is a touch of rain in the air but ‘not enough to affect grip,’ according to one of the drivers on radio.
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Lap 11/53: Ricciardo finally gets past Alonso with a brilliant move ... and Lando Norris, the other McLaren, swiftly takes him too! Ricciardo is eighth, Norris ninth, Alonso 10th. That was a class move by Ricciardo, under-braking his opponent and sneaking past on the inside of a left-hander.
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Lap 10/53: The early signs are that early mistake by Verstappen from pole position is going to be very costly. Hamilton’s lead is up to 1.8secs. If it rains, which is looking possible, that should play into Hamilton’s hands too. The pre-race talk was of a few errors creeping in to Hamilton’s season but that was a howler by Verstappen with a clear track in front of him. Whether he simply lost a bit of grip, we will find out after the race.
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Lap 8/53: Ricciardo and Alonso are having a lively battle for eighth place. Ricciardo in the McLaren is right on the Spaniard’s tail. Alonso isn’t entirely comfortably with his tyres, either.
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Lap 7/53: Hamilton has been on the radio to tell his team that he is not sure if the medium tyres are going to hold up well enough for a one-stopper.
“That will be very concerning for the team at the pit wall,” observes Brundle on commentary.
Hamilton’s lead continues to hover between 1.4sec and 1.6sec.
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Lap 6/53 - live standings:
- 1 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes
- 2 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing +1.328
- 3 Valtteri BOTTAS Mercedes +2.401
- 4 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +6.293
- 5 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +9.345
- 6 Pierre GASLY AlphaTauri +10.125
- 7 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +11.211
- 8 Fernando ALONSO Alpine +12.609
- 9 Daniel RICCIARDO McLaren +13.428
- 10 Lando NORRIS McLaren +15.108 - -
- 11 Sebastian VETTEL Aston Martin +16.184
- 12 Esteban OCON Alpine +17.122 - -
- 13 Antonio GIOVINAZZI Alfa Romeo Racing +17.914
- 14 Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN Alfa Romeo Racing +18.909
- 15 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +19.509
- 16 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +20.542
- 17 Nicholas LATIFI Williams +22.843
- 18 George RUSSELL Williams +23.523
- 19 Nikita MAZEPIN Haas F1 Team +25.077
- 20 Mick SCHUMACHER Haas F1 Team +29.646
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Lap 5/53: Hamilton’s lead for Mercedes is hovering at around 1.5sec.
Lap 3/53: It’s hard to see what went wrong for Max Verstappen at the start. He got a good start and he led into turn one, but then veered off the track going through turn two, a right-hander. The door was wide open for Hamilton, who needed no second invitation to blast through and take the race lead. Hamilton now leads by 1.5sec but Verstappen has just set the fastest lap ...
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Lap 2/53: Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) are trying to make inroads further down the field. Vettel has made up a place, and is 11th having started 12. Sainz has stayed ahead of Gasly for now.
Lights out! Hamilton leads!
Verstappen goes off the track at turn two! Hamilton leads! a terrible start for Red Bull, and equally a superb start for Hamilton. Hamilton is building a handy early lead having started second on the grid.
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The cars on the grid ...
The formation lap has begun. The top 10 on the grid are all on medium tyres. The on-track temperature is 37C as the sun pokes through the clearing clouds. They will probably be back ...
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This is the fifth pole position of Max Verstappen’s burgeoning career. On a related not, no one has ever won here from third on the grid. Turn one is going to be key.
The Sky presenter, Simon Lazenby, is pictured sitting on a beach swigging a glass of Provençal rosé. Jealous. I bet he finished the bottle.
Ten minutes until lights out. Should we pray for rain?
Max Verstappen, of Red Bull, who leads the drivers’ standings and is on pole today, had a quick chat: “I’m confident we can do a good job ... it will not be easy, but that makes it exciting, so that’s good.”
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French GP: Starting grid
Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) starts from the pit lane after a qualifying shunt led to some parts being changed on the car overnight.
1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
4. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull)
5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
6. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
7. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
8. Lando Norris (McLaren)
9. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
10. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
11. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
12. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
13. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
14. George Russell (Williams)
15. Mick Schumacher (Haas)
16. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
17. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
18. Nikita Mazepin (Haas)
19. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
20. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
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It seems Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), who is fourth on the grid, managed to go off track and flat-spot one of his tyres, but the car seems to be fine, so they will get it sorted before the start.
Christian Horner, the Red Bull boss, speaks to Sky: “This is a very strong track for Mercedes ... it’s going to be an exciting race ... the weather could play a key role ... it’s looking pretty dark where the weather is coming from, so we’re going to have to keep a close eye on that.”
Hamilton has just put a message over team radio that he thinks there may be a problem with the way the team have tweaked the ‘brake magic’ toggle after the problem he experienced in Baku, when he accidentally pressed it on the restart. Nico Rosberg, on pundit duty for Sky Sports F1, says it’s ‘very worrying’ if there is a problem there.
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The weather forecast is for scattered thunderstorms in the area today. A glance at the greying sky would suggest there is plenty of rain in the air near Marseille, too, although it’s dry at the moment. Hamilton also mentioned that he likes racing in the rain ...
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“The ageing sentimentalist in me, as well as the BLM supporter, wants Hammy to win,” writes William Hargreaves on Twitter. “I feel a championship this time around would mean even more than the others to him - tougher opposition.”
The consummate Martin Brundle on screen now, down on the grid. “It’s a pit walk, but not a pit talk, part of the [Covid-19] protocols,” he says.
“It’s a maximum of 42 people per team, including the drivers ... 20 per car ... that seems enough, but there’s an awful lot of work to do.”
A little more pre-race reading for you: take a look at Giles Richards’s interview with Pierre Gasly:
The AlphaTauri driver on mental health, being dropped by Red Bull and how the death of his friend Anthoine Hubert changed him
“The story of the weekend has to be Verstappen v Hamilton. I’ve been asked for a prediction,” yells Ted Kravitz down at trackside, over the noise of those revving engines ... “I’ve got absolutely no idea what’s going to happen.”
What are your expectations for today’s race?
You can always email me here or tweet @LukeMcLaughlin
Lights out in under 45 minutes ...
Lewis Hamilton is asked if he’s happy to see fans in the stands: “It’s amazing to see people back ... there’s a lot of energy all of a sudden now. When we didn’t have any fans, it was like a practice day almost ... so it’s great to see some energy ... they’re bringing the vibe this weekend ... I’m excited and hope we can put on a good show today.
“It’s going to be tough to beat the Red Bulls - they are extremely quick - yesterday, it was over 3/10ths [advantage for Red Bull] on the straights ... so we’ve got some work to do today.”
Bienvenue to race day! 😎
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 20, 2021
We're LIVE with the drivers ahead of the #FrenchGP 🇫🇷
Lights out at 1500 local / 1300 UTC 🤙 https://t.co/3AsPDwsptE
Max Verstappen roared to pole for the French Grand Prix leaving an expected Mercedes resurgence wobbling in his slipstream. The Red Bull driver handsomely beat Lewis Hamilton into second, with the world champion accepting that any suggestion that past successes meant his Mercedes team could take anything for granted was out of the question.
Preamble
Is Lewis Hamilton starting to feel the pressure this season? His rival Max Verstappen is ahead in the drivers’ title standings - by a slender margin of four points - and also ahead of Hamilton on the grid for this afternoon’s French grand prix after the Dutchman claimed a stunning pole position on Saturday.
The British world champion insisted his error at the previous grand prix in Baku was nothing to do with pressure - and it would be just like him to silence a few doubters and produce a victory for Mercedes in the south of France today to re-exert control on proceedings.
There is no sign of the most exciting drivers’ title race in years being decisively settled either way for quite some time to come, but today should prove a significant milestone on the road to the title for the driver that eventually prevails. Pre-race buildup and more coming right up.
