F1: Max Verstappen Stars In Red Bull 1-3 At French GP

Max Verstappen drove an immaculate race after handing the lead of the race to Lewis Hamilton with a mistake at the first corner to win the French GP at Paul Ricard. Verstappen used a two-stop strategy to first undercut Hamilton to take the lead and then to overtake him in the penultimate lap of the race to a storming victory. He was followed by Hamilton who drove masterful nursing a single stope strategy many believed wasn't optimal for the high degradation tyres at the track.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez also ran a masterful tyre strategy nursing his rubber during the first stint that allowed him to run longer than most cars on the track. This meant at the fag end of the race he was nicely placed to overtake the second Mercedes driven by Valtteri Bottas who ended up P4.

The two McLaren cars were far behind the front runners but decisively both came P5 and P6, far ahead of the two Ferrari's which had a disastrous race outside the points in P11 and P16. Lando Norris again beat his teammate Daniel Ricciardo even though this time the more experienced Aussie qualified ahead of him. McLaren generally showed great race pace supported by minimal tyre degradation which allowed the two cars to run a single-stop strategy. This means McLaren overtakes Ferrari for P3 in the world constructors championship.

Verstappen overtook Hamilton in the penultimate lap of the race

Behind them was Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri in P7 followed by Fernando Alonso in the Alpine in P8. The Aston Martin pair of Vettel and Stroll came P9 and P10, both executing another single pitstop strategy.

Carlos Sainz Jr fell behind starting from P5 to P11, using a single stop strategy. George Russell finished in an excellent P12 for Williams, followed by Yuki Tsunoda in the second AlphaTauri whose race was ruined during qualifying where he crashed and needed a gearbox change that triggered a penalty.

Hamilton's Mercedes took the lead after a mistake by Verstappen

Esteban Ocon finished P14 in the other Alpine which was a disappointing home race for the Frenchman. Antonio Giovinazzi finished shockingly ahead of Charles Leclerc, the pole sitter of the last two races in P15. Leclerc truly had a shocker of a race with high degradation during his two stints.

Kimi Raikkonen finished in P17 for Alpha Romeo again behind his teammate Giovinazzi. Nicholas Latifi finished in P18 ahead of the Haas pair of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. There were no retirements and Russell's performance also meant that Williams overtook Haas for P9 in the world constructors championship.