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Formula 1 ... French Grand Prix ... Lewis wins as Valtteri fights his way through the field


Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton

 

Le Castellet, 24 June, 2018

Weather

sunny and dry
23-26°C air
38-45°C track

Lewis claims his 65th career victory at the return of the French Grand Prix – his third of the 2018 season and 44th with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport.

An accident at the start, duels on the track and a well thought out strategy which delivered a third and a fifth place for Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. Scuderia Ferrari thus made the best of what turned into a bad situation right from the start. Seb limited the damage, with Hamilton now heading him in the championship by 14 points.

 

STORY OF THE RACE
“Nose damage” shouted Seb: just moments from the start, a collision with Bottas at Turn 1 produced damage that was clear to see. The Safety Car came out immediately because of a collision between Ocon and Gasly and the number 5 Ferrari pitted for a new nose, while Bottas also came in with a puncture. Seb took on Softs, the hardest tyre, in order to rejig the race strategy. Kimi was now seventh after also having a moment braking into the first corner.

5 laps later and the race was on again. Seb went round the outside of Alonso, who spun and Kimi got the better of Leclerc. Vettel gained a further two places before use of DRS was authorised. Raikkonen passed Magnussen to go fifth. Seb had just passed Vandoorne to close in on the points zone when the stewards handed him a 5 second penalty for the earlier collision. Further up the order, Kimi showed that the SF71H had a strong race pace as he next passed Sainz.

On lap 12, Vettel pulled a great passing move on Hulkenberg to go tenth and next on his list was Perez, followed by Grosjean. On lap 16, Kimi set the fastest lap, as Seb now passed Leclerc and Magnussen for sixth place.

Lap 20 and Seb got past Sainz, braking from 330 km/h at the chicane and he was clear of traffic. The aim was to get ahead of Verstappen when the Red Bull would pit, but was there was the added variable of the lurking threat of rain. Seb asked which sector was costing him the most time. Verstappen pitted at the end of lap 25 and Seb stuck right with him down the straight but also had to look after his tyres at the halfway point.

At the start of lap 30, Ricciardo pitted and this time Sebastian managed to stay ahead, without counting the penalty. With 20 laps to go, Hamilton pitted, which meant Kimi was leading, before he too pitted to change tyres, going from Ultra to Supersoft. On fresher tyres, Ricciardo managed to get ahead of Seb who now found himself ahead of his team-mate. Then Raikkonen put in a super lap in 1’34”819 and soon after Seb left the way clear for his team-mate who was racing Bottas. Indeed, it was Valtteri who came in for Supersofts but it was a slow stop. Ferrari reacted, bringing Vettel in for Ultrasofts, sitting there for longer to take the penalty too, comfortably maintaining his position.

Last few laps: Raikkonen was very quick and had Ricciardo in his sights, but there were backmarkers to be dealt with. The first scrap came at the start of lap 47 and then Kimi made the decisive move at the chicane and was in a podium position. Right at the end the Virtual Safety Car was used after Stroll went off. Scuderia Ferrari picked up 25 points, which one minute into the race had seemed an impossibility. It was down to the determination of the drivers and the cool headed approach of the guys on the pit wall.

Lewis Hamilton
When you’re constructive and criticise yourself, approach a challenge with new methods and a new-found determination, it’s a great feeling to then get the result. But it’s also disappointing for the team as we had the opportunity to take a 1-2, which is always incredible as you achieve your ultimate goal as a team. I was very comfortable with the balance this afternoon. Max had decent pace, but I could maintain the gap at around five seconds. The fresh engine put us back in line with everyone else who took a new PU in Canada and everybody in the team should be feeling happy today for the good work they have done. But there’s a long way to go and we’ll keep approaching the rest of the season like we approached today.

Valtteri Bottas
That was a shame because we had a strong car today as Lewis’ result shows. But my race was lost in Turn One. I was on the outside going into it and I knew that keeping that line would put me on the inside for Turn Two. Then suddenly I got a hit from behind, had a puncture and damaged my floor. After that it was difficult as the car was quite damaged and I could feel the lack of rear end. I was sliding around and had to do a second pit stop which was unfortunately slow so we lost more time there. I guess today was just not my day; in a way it sums up my season so far. But there are some positives – we were strong as a team, although unfortunately we could not turn that into a perfect points result. I also set the fastest lap of the race despite the condition of the car. I’ll keep my head down, work hard and hopefully the luck will turn around at some point – I think it’s about time.

Toto Wolff
This was a perfect way for Lewis to start the triple header and to bounce back from the disappointment of Canada. Whenever he has a tough weekend, he has this fantastic ability to bounce straight back, and we saw that again here in Paul Ricard. He pretty much controlled the whole race and didn’t put a wheel wrong at any point. For Valtteri, it was a much tougher day: Sebastian clearly misjudged his braking for Turn One and made a mistake, which cost both him and Valtteri dearly. When the car stopped, we saw that the floor area around the tyre was pretty badly damaged and flapping about – and Valtteri described the car balance as “shocking”. Taking that into account, it was a battling performance from him, too. Overall, though, we leave seeing the positive side of our performance this weekend. The car was quick and with our upgrades, it felt like we made a step forward; thank you to everybody in the team who worked so hard to bring them to the track this weekend. But we can’t afford to make any assumptions about what this means for the next races – it’s still a three-way fight and we will need to be at our very best if we wish to repeat this performance.

James Allison
It is hard to be unhappy on a day when you have won the race in fine style, both reclaiming the lead in the drivers’ championship and extending our advantage in the constructors’. Lewis drove a splendid race and had everything under control throughout; it was a faultless performance. But it is hard not to feel very sorry for Valtteri, who also had a terrific weekend and saw his race compromised at Turn One through no fault of his own. On the bright side, though, the car performance was good all weekend and we can travel to Austria with the optimism

Maurizio Arrivabene
”It was a shame about the accident at the start, which meant we couldn’t show what we could really do. But on a track that is not best suited to the SF71H, it proved to be very competitive in tenms of its race pace. That was evident from the great fight back up the order, featuring overtaking moves from Kimi and Sebastian. The team gave its all, making the right strategy calls to give the drivers every chance to get the best result possible in the circumstances. With such a tight calendar, we are already looking ahead to the Austrian GP, which gets underway in a few days and we have to focus on making up the lost ground.”

Kimi Raikkonen
“At the start we lost two places; I was on the outside and then the accident at the first corner happened, and it was a quite messy situation. I tried to stay out of trouble but chose the wrong side of the track. After that I was able lo recover. I had a good feeling with the car, especially after we had our pit stop and put the Supersoft tires on. We had a good speed through the whole race. We decided to do a very long stint with the first set and it lasted very well; only towards the end it got a bit tricky. Then, with the new tires, the car was very good and I could race and actually pass other drivers; it was a lot more fun than the last two races!”

Sebastian Vettel
”I think my start was good, perhaps even too good, as I found myself very close to Lewis in front and, when I tried to brake, I had absolutely no grip and there wasn’t much space where I could go: Valtteri on my right was trying to get his position back and Max was also trying to come round on the outside. It’s a shame for Valtteri because he did nothing wrong and it’s a shame for us, because we could have obtained a better result. Fortunately, we could continue racing, we had a good car in the race, but the outcome was not what we wanted. It was my fault, but now let’s move on and think about the next weekend.”

Nico Hülkenberg
“It was good out there today, I’m happy to gain a few places and finish in the points. Lap one was interesting, just to survive was important as it was carnage everywhere. We were a little on the back foot yesterday, so ninth was probably the best we could achieve today. I had fun out there, though, making a couple of overtakes and enjoying a bit of racing. Carlos was on for a good result and it’s a pity he missed out on sixth as that would have been really good points for the team. Overall, we’ve gained points in the Constructors’ so that’s not too bad at all.”

Carlos Sainz
“It hurts a little bit to end the race like that. We were having such a good weekend from start to finish. We had a strong qualifying, made a clean start running in the top three early on, and then controlling sixth. The second-half of the race was fast-paced and we were managing it well until the sudden problem, which cost us two or three seconds a lap. It’s a shame and I feel sorry for the whole team, as I think we deserved to be best of the rest today. These things happen in racing, and it’s my first reliability issue of the year, so let’s move on and start preparing Austria."

Cyril Abiteboul
“I will remember this weekend for a long time. Outside of the sporting results it’s been an amazing weekend and in particular seeing the crowd just before the race was really something special. As the French team of the Championship we were fully mobilised to turn this first edition into a success, so it was a huge reward for all involved including all the fans invited by Renault. Moving onto the racing, today we had a decent finish with a bit of frustration. It was pretty much a perfect weekend from Carlos so I feel sorry for him and losing some well-deserved places due to the MGU-K failure. Nico did struggle more this weekend and was not able to deliver his customary strong finish, however we come away with a number of points on a track we knew would be challenging. We are still consolidating that fourth position and are now five points ahead of our entire 2017 points tally after only eight races. We are getting stronger and we must employ all the support we feel from French Grand Prix this weekend to keep pushing.”

Marcus Ericsson
"I am quite happy with my race. It was a tough weekend, and having started after only running in FP1 and qualifying, we did a good job in getting on the pace during the race. I made a good start and I was able to evade the incident on the first lap and to gain positions. After that, I struggled with the balance of the car and didn't advance as well as we hoped to. In the second half of the race, the car felt much better and things were running more smoothly. The tyres were working better, and I closed the gap to the competitors ahead. We also had a very fast pit stop again. Now, we have to make sure that we understand what happened at the beginning of the race and come back even stronger in Austria next week." 

Charles Leclerc
"Overall, I am satisfied with the outcome of this weekend. I had a great qualifying result yesterday, and felt confident in the car. Having scored another point for the team during the race today feels great. It was fun to drive, and I had some good fights with the drivers around me. We are moving in a positive direction, and improving our performance week by week. I really look forward to seeing what is possible next weekend." 

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal
"It has been a positive weekend for us. We had good pace in qualifying, and increased our pace step by step. Today, both of our drivers fought in the midfield during the race, and we are making good progress as a team. It is important for us to keep pushing and stay in the fight with our direct competition in the races ahead. We feel confident for the next Grand Prix in Austria." 

 

Pos

Driver

Car

Chassis #

Time/Retired

Laps

1

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

F1 W09 01

1:30:11.385

53

2

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer

 

+7.090s

53

3

Kimi Räikkönen

Ferrari

 

+25.888s

53

4

Daniel Ricciardo

Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer

 

+34.736s

53

5

Sebastian Vettel

Ferrari

 

+61.935s

53

6

Kevin Magnussen

Haas Ferrari

 

+79.364s

53

7

Valtteri Bottas

Mercedes

F1 W09 04

+80.632s

53

8

Carlos Sainz

Renault

R.S.18-03

+87.184s

53

9

Nico Hulkenberg

Renault

R.S.18-02

+91.989s

53

10

Charles Leclerc

Sauber Ferrari

04

+93.873s

53

11

Romain Grosjean

Haas Ferrari

 

+1 lap

52

12

Stoffel Vandoorne

McLaren Renault

 

+1 lap

52

13

Marcus Ericsson

Sauber Ferrari

01

+1 lap

52

14

Brendon Hartley

Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda

 

+1 lap

52

15

Sergey Sirotkin

Williams Mercedes

 

+1 lap

52

16

Fernando Alonso

McLaren Renault

 

DNF

50

17

Lance Stroll

Williams Mercedes

 

DNF

48

NC

Sergio Perez

Force India Mercedes

 

DNF

27

NC

Esteban Ocon

Force India Mercedes

 

DNF

0

NC

Pierre Gasly

Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda

 

DNF

0