Five winners and five losers of the F1 French Grand Prix

Paul Ricard finally delivered a great F1 race with an exciting and fascinating French Grand Prix that Max Verstappen won after the Red Bull driver’s final overtaking maneuver against title rival Lewis Hamilton.

On the way to the victorious battle, the fate of the midfielders in F1 faced opposing fates. But the consolation for those going through a difficult day is that in Austria there are immediately consecutive races.

Here are our winners and losers from the 2021 French GP …

winner

Max Verstappen and Red Bull

Verstappen came from behind twice to beat Hamilton’s Mercedes after giving his main rival the lead with a rare mistake in the first corner.

Red Bull implemented their strategy when Verstappen undercut Hamilton to be the first to win back after the first stint before the risk of switching to a two-stopper was the right decision.

On the subject of matching items

Verstappen quietly evaporated an 18-second gap on Hamilton on fresher medium tires and swept past the seven-time world champion on the penultimate lap to seal a momentous victory that gave him a 12-point lead in the championship after seven races.

It was another great race for Sergio Perez, who followed his win last time in Baku with a strong podium finish after devising a one-stop strategy to overtake the struggling Valtteri Bottas late.

McLaren

A fantastic day in the office for the Woking team that sealed a solid point win, with Lando Norris finishing fifth ahead of teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

On the subject of matching items

Race day McLaren’s performance was superior to that of its midfield rivals as Norris and Ricciardo battled past the fading Ferraris to regain third place in the Constructors’ Championship.

It was probably Ricciardo’s strongest performance so far for his new team, as it is more likely than ever before a decisive race in the MCL35M. Some encouraging early signs that old Ricciardo is back.

Fernando Alonso

After a slow start to his F1 comeback, Fernando Alonso demonstrated his world champion qualities on the last two race weekends in Baku and France.

A second Q3 appearance in a row put him on course for points and despite the alpine tempo battles he managed a strong eighth place on race day.

Alonso finished just 1.7 seconds behind Ricciardo’s McLaren and AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly and can break away from Paul Ricard, who feels he has got the most out of his side this weekend.

Aston Martin

Sebastian Vettel has made some impressive moves on his way to ninth place as he continued his good run from his last form in France on a solid day for Aston Martin.

Excellent tire management during a gigantic first stint helped the four-time world champion to score his third point in a row.

The team was disappointed after qualifying as Vettel was eliminated in the second quarter, while a messy Q1 interrupted by two red flags left Lance Stroll ahead of a start-up phase.

Stroll recovered strongly in the race and finished 10th on the checkered flag and crowned a double point ranking that helped the team to get within five points of the fifth-placed AlphaTauri.

George Russell

George Russell described the French GP as his best drive so far for Williams as he finished 12th due to his performance.

Despite losing ground on the first lap when he was moved down from 14th on the grid, Russell took advantage of an early pit stop to move up to 12th at the end of the race.

P12 was earned on a day of no failures as Russell and Williams’ pace made all the difference and allowed the Briton to overtake Esteban Ocon of Alpine and Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri.

loser

Mercedes

Mercedes had to regret a strategic mistake when the victory in France slipped through their hands.

At first, the decision to pit Hamilton one lap late proved costly as Verstappen successfully undercut the seven-time world champion before mistakenly believing that a one-stop strategy was the best way to win the race.

Red Bull triumphed thanks to his daring venture to switch to a two-stopper, which left the Mercedes team scratching their heads and leaving Bottas unhappy when Red Bull conceded more points in the title race.

Ferrari

A really sad day for Scuderia as they left the French GP with no points after a difficult race.

Ferrari started from positions five and seven with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, but both drivers slacked off dramatically in the race as they struggled with tire wear.

Sainz fell back to 11th place, while Leclerc’s slump was even more dramatic when he crashed into P16 over the weekend to forget Ferrari, who surrendered third place in the championship to McLaren.

Yuki Tsunoda

After an impressive performance in Baku, Yuki Tsunoda came back with a bang when he suffered his third qualifying crash in seven races at Paul Ricard.

So he stayed behind for the race. While his recovery drive from the pit lane to P13 was decent, he missed a clear chance to score points with team-mate Pierre Gasly in seventh place.

AlphaTauri needs Tsunoda to be a regular at Gasly in the top 10 if it is to achieve its goals in the Constructors’ World Championship this season. Granted, he’s a beginner, but his mistakes get a little too common.

Esteban Ocon

Home hero Esteban Ocon had high hopes of scoring points along with teammate Alonso, but his race quickly went downhill as he couldn’t celebrate in style the signing of a new three-year deal with Alpine.

Starting on the Hards didn’t pay off as Ocon struggled with tire management, which in turn meant he ran on Medium longer than planned.

With no pace on either route, Ocon fell back to a low 14th place one weekend, where Alonso vastly outperformed him.

Mick Schumacher

After his impressive qualifying performance, Mick Schumacher missed the chance to achieve his best result in Formula 1 to date.

The German’s hard work to finish 15th on the grid was ruined thanks to a bad first lap that dropped him to 19th place. Schumacher was then pushed off the road when Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin found a way past.

Schumacher fought his way back to recapture Mazepin’s position but will be disappointed with his uninspiring performance in the race.