In a fascinating race dictated by strategy, Red Bull prevailed against Mercedes by opting for a two-stop strategy with Verstappen, while Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas stuck to a one-stop strategy.
Verstappen fought his way back after a rare mistake at the start when he gave Hamilton the lead as he ran wide at Turn 1 and used a heavy undercut to skip his main rival in the first stint before adopting the opposite strategy from Mercedes drill a second time.
Red Bull pulled the pin on a two-stopper at the end of lap 32 when Verstappen dived into the pits to get a set of medium tires to chase the hard-hitting, longtime Mercedes duo.
Verstappen was 18 seconds behind Hamilton in the final laps but used his fresher tires to storm his way to victory. Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez offered little resistance as Verstappen finished third before overtaking Bottas on lap 44.
On the subject of matching items
After reducing Hamilton’s five-second gap in the following laps, the Dutchman took victory on the penultimate lap when he crashed into Hamilton’s Mercedes at the chicane at Turn 6 and sealed his third win of the season.
The win is amends for Verstappen’s unfortunate loss of victory in Baku last time and puts him 12 points ahead of Hamilton in the championship.
It was also the first time in the V6 hybrid era that Red Bull had three wins in a row.
On the subject of matching items
Behind the leading protagonists, Perez pulled a late pass to Bottas, securing last place on the podium and his second appearance on the podium in a row.
Bottas’ pace slowed dramatically in the closing stages when he struggled with tire wear on his way to fourth place.
Lando Norris continued his remarkable form with a brilliant drive to fifth place ahead of McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who prevailed over P6 in an intense late fight.
The Australian beat AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly at the checkered flag by just 0.739 seconds, with the home favorite again landing a second ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine.
Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martins and the recovering Lance Stroll rounded off the points in ninth and tenth place.
Click here for the full results of the 2021 F1 Grand Prix of France.
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