F1 Paddock Notebook – French GP Sunday

-    Lewis Hamilton swept to the 79th victory of his Formula 1 career in dominant fashion on Sunday, leading every single lap of the French Grand Prix. It marks his second straight win at Paul Ricard, his fourth win in a row this year, and sixth total for the season for the opening eight races.

-    Hamilton was on-course for the sixth ‘grand slam’ of his F1 career until the final lap of the race. He had led every single lap from pole, and held the fastest lap, only for a late effort from Sebastian Vettel to nick the best time away and the bonus point that came with it. Hamilton remains tied for P2 in the all-time grand slams list with five to his name, three shy of Jim Clark’s record.

-    Hamilton stressed after the race that it had not been completely plain sailing for Mercedes at the front of the pack, reporting mid-race that he thought his seat was broken. He also said he had blistering on his tyres towards the end that left him fearing a possible issue.

-    Valtteri Bottas was able to hold on to second place for Mercedes despite some late concerns after his engine started to misfire, fending off Charles Leclerc on the final lap. Bottas had also lost time when he was caught out by the quick resumption of the race after a Virtual Safety Car period to allow for a bollard to be recovered from the circuit. Leclerc took his third podium of the year for Ferrari.

-    Max Verstappen made good on his post-qualifying belief that he could beat a Ferrari as he finished fourth ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Vettel had closed to within three seconds of Verstappen towards the end of the first stint in the fight for P4, but then dropped back through the second half of the race.

-    Vettel was left lamenting a failed set of updates from Ferrari in France, leaving the team still seeking its first win of the year heading to Austria next weekend.

-    McLaren finished as the best of the rest with Carlos Sainz in P6, but the team was close to a bigger result as Lando Norris sat most of the race P7, only for a late hydraulic failure to drop him back. Norris was passed on-track by Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg and Kimi Raikkonen on the penultimate lap, giving some excitement to the end of the race.

-    Ricciardo would be dropped out of the points as a result of the scrap, though, when he was deemed to have both unsafely rejoined the track and to have gained an off-track advantage, resulting in two five-second time penalties. As a result, he was classified 11th behind Pierre Gasly, who moved up a place into the points.

-    Ricciardo posted after the race on social media that he was glad to have tried to make the move but fell short of a rant on Twitter. His initial tweet was deleted, having read: “No regrets. I tried. Would rather that than be a peasant and watch.”

-    Sergio Perez was left angry after the race for receiving a time penalty despite appearing to follow the FIA’s direction on how to rejoin the track at Turn 5 after going off the circuit. Perez said the penalty “ruined” his race, denying him the chance to fight for points.

-    However, FIA race director Michael Masi explained after the race that Perez had gained places in the move, and that drivers had previously agreed any incident not at Turn 1 would not result in the FIA giving a call to give the place back. Racing Point also did not contact race control about the incident.

-    Sebastian Vettel complained about the quick start light procedure, with the five red lights appearing to extinguish quite quickly. However, Masi said there were no issues in this.

-    George Russell lost out in a race to Robert Kubica for the first time this season after being forced to pit for a new front wing when he hit a polystyrene block in a bid to pass his teammate. Russell said after the race battling his teammate was the most fun he could have right now.

-    When asked about the lack of on-track action, many drivers and team figures came back with the same solution: remove the chicane on the Mistral Straight. Masi said that it was too close to the race to make a real assessment about what changes could be made in the future to aid racing at Paul Ricard.