Seven talking points from a fabulous French GP

Verstappen’s early error

“This one’s on us,” radioed Merc’s chief strategist James Vowles to Hamilton after the champion was left powerless to stop Verstappen’s charge into the lead on the penultimate lap, running as he was on much fresher rubber. Hamilton accepted the defeat with good grace, following his own ‘magic button’ mistake in Baku – but between them, both team and driver have become uncharacteristically accident-prone in the past few weeks.

It all seemed to be going Hamilton’s way early on, when Verstappen failed to get his Red Bull turned in at the first corner, handing Lewis the advantage. Big mistake from the Dutchman. But it was overturned at the pitstops when Mercedes chose to pit Valtteri Bottas first before Hamilton, Verstappen coming in a lap later and leaving Lewis vulnerable to the undercut which tends to be potent at Paul Ricard. When the Englishman pitted for hard compound tyres a lap after his rival he was confused how his lead had been lost, although Toto Wolff later claimed Merc had “no choice” over the Bottas call. A worrying tyre vibration led the team to bring him in promptly for his own safety. Whatever, that decision cost Hamilton vital track position and allowed Red Bull to dictate what happened next.

Merc duo left fully exposed

As a sweary Bottas radio message made all too plain, the Mercedes drivers had doubted the assertion that one pitstop would do around Paul Ricard. Sure enough, Verstappen radioed in: “We cannot keep this up until the end of the race, that’s for sure,” as the two black cars shadowed his every move. Then on lap 32, Red Bull called him in for a second stop and a set of lightly used mediums – and the chase was on. Hamilton and Bottas were powerless to respond, both knowing if they pitted too the race would be lost. All they could do was try to hang on, as their tired tyres left them fully exposed to Verstappen’s advances. First Bottas fell on lap 44, which triggered his angry blast on the radio – then the Red Bull closed in on Hamilton. Lewis had no response to the move into the chicane on the back straight on lap 52 of 53. “Simply lovely,” as Verstappen’s engineer Gianpiero Lambiase put it. 

The good news for us? “It will be like this for the rest of the season,” Verstappen predicted, of a duel that is already proving to be among grand prix racing’s finest.

Perez follows Baku win in style

Sergio Perez rubbed salt into Merc’s wounds by using his own one-stop strategy to good effect and follow up his victory in Baku by stealing the final podium step from Bottas. The Mexican is famous for his ability to nurse his tyres and he did it once again, managing to run a long first stint on the mediums – pitting on lap 24, seven later than Bottas – which left him with fresher white-walled hards as he chased the Finn down at the end. Perez ran wide over the track limits after he’d made his decisive move, but avoided a penalty because the stewards judged the pass already complete and the transgression had been a disadvantage rather than a gain. Everything seemed to go Red Bull’s way in France.

Norris stars yet again

He didn’t make the best of starts from eighth on the grid, but Lando Norris once again put in a fantastic race-day performance to finish fifth, easily the best of ‘class B’. Like Perez, the 21-year-old waited until lap 24 to pit, which left him down in the teens and apparently with a mountain to climb. But the McLaren MCL35M was working well at Paul Ricard and Norris picked off those ahead of him, including his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo who had run ahead of him in the early stages. This was another classy performance from Norris as the McLarens claimed a decent points haul with a fine five-six.

Misery for Ferrari

The two Ferraris appeared to be in the game following Saturday qualifying, Carlos Sainz Jr lining up fifth ahead of Charles Leclerc in seventh. But on Sunday that translated into a disastrous 11^th and 16^th respectively as the two red cars simply fell out of contention, Leclerc finding himself forced to pit twice after becoming the first driver of the race to pit for what was supposed to be his only stop, on lap 14. 

Those who outperformed them included Pierre Gasly, who lost a place from where he started but still claimed a fine seventh at his home grand prix. Fernando Alonso showed that his comeback is gaining promising traction with a fine eighth place for Alpine, six places ahead of disappointed team-mate Esteban Ocon, who slipped out of sight in his first race since signing a new three-year deal to remain at the Anglo-French team. 

Respect due for Aston Martin

Aston Martin duo Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll also showed long first stints could work a treat, running deep into the race having started on hard-compound tyres to claim the final points in ninth and 10^th respectively. The team that was fighting last year to be F1’s third-best when it was known as Racing Point cannot be satisfied to be scrapping for the final paying positions, but there must still have been some satisfaction for the Silverstone-based squad for a race well run.

Russell’s best for Williams

Last word to George Russell for a race performance he rated as his best in a Williams. The Mercedes protégé finished 12^th on merit, in a race that became only the 10^th in F1 world championship history to feature no retirements. He beat Yuki Tsunoda, who started from the pitlane, but also Ocon, both Alfa Romeos and Leclerc, plus team-mate Nicolas Latifi and the Haas pair. There are no points for 12^th, of course, but Russell continues to make the point that matters for him more than any. He’ll be ready whenever the ‘big’ call comes.