The French Grand Prix brought a shocking crash and a great battle for the podium! Who dominated the twelfth race of the season?

Formula 1 has completed its twelfth race of the season, namely the French Grand Prix. And it offered a lot. However, Ferrari fans will be very disappointed, while Red Bull with Max Verstappen can celebrate and Mercedes, which has both cars on the podium for the first time this season!

Already the start of the French Grand Prix brought two great racing performances – Lewis Hamilton brilliantly outpaced Sergio Pérez in the Red Bull, while Kevin Magnussen in the Haas monopost went from last place to twelfth during the opening laps.

Charles Leclerc held on to his top spot ahead of Verstappen at the start. And it wouldn’t be Formula One if there wasn’t at least some contact almost immediately after all five lights went out.

For it was Yuki Cunoda (AlphaTauri) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) who collided on the Mistral straight, with the Japanese driver taking the contact off the clock. Ocon, however, subsequently collected a five-second penalty from race directors for causing the collision.

It should be noted that all drivers, with the exception of Carlos Sainz, Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly, went into the race on a medium set of tyres. The Spaniard Sainz started from nineteenth position due to a power unit component change, but managed to gain five places during the opening five laps.

Leclerc, Verstappen, Hamilton, Perez, Alonso, Russell, Norris, Ricciardo, Ocon, Stroll – this is how the top ten standings looked after the opening five laps of the French Grand Prix.

A disaster for Ferrari

On lap 18, however, came the moment that drastically shook all Ferrari fans – Leclerc ended up in the tyre barrier at Turn 1 and dropped out of the race from the provisional top spot.

Of course, yellow flags were immediately waved and the safety car took to the track. A number of drivers took advantage of this to pit stop, logically to change to a fresher set of tyres.

That safety car pitted three laps later, so on lap 21 the race could be restarted. Fans witnessed further contact between the drivers on lap 28 when Mick Schumacher retired after a duel with Chinese driver Kuan-yu Zhou.

Penalty for Sainz

The awarding of a five-second penalty to Sainz was also an important moment in the race. Like the other drivers, the Spanish driver pitted in safety car mode. However, after completing the pit-stop, his team dangerously dropped him right in front of one of the Williams cars.

The result? A 5-second penalty for a dangerous pit stop. The fact that Paul Ricard is a challenging technical circuit was proven to many drivers, including Frenchman Gasly, who went off track on lap 29.

37. the lap then brought a mutual battle between Magnussen and Nicholas Latifi, hence the contact. It should be noted, they retired from the race after a few more laps. After Leclerc and Cunod, they became the next drivers who did not see the finish in this race.

But then came the 41st lap and a great battle for third place between Sainz and Pérez, from which the former emerged victorious. However, Sainz pitted two laps later at the team’s instigation, where he not only put on a fresher set of tyres but also served his penalty.

But because of this, he dropped down to ninth place. But on lap 44 he passed eighth-placed Ocon and seventh-placed Daniel Ricciardo, and Sainz actually had very good pace towards the end of the race.

Verstappen, Hamilton, Perez, Russell, Alonso, Norris, Sainz, Ricciardo, Ocon, Stroll – that’s how the top ten points standings looked after 45 laps.

At the very end, Sainz also gained the positions of Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris. Overall, he scored 14 positions in the French Grand Prix and was rightly voted by the fans as the best driver of the day.

The fans then watched a beautiful duel in the final laps of the French Grand Prix, when Pérez and Russell fought a tough battle for third place. The winner? The Mercedes driver.

So this is the top ten drivers at the finish of the French Grand Prix. The Ferrari team has lost a lot of ground, while Red Bull and Mercedes are making solid points contributions. McLaren and Alpine both finished on points as well.

Source: F1 TV