Imperious Hamilton extends his championship lead at Le Castellet

Winner Mercedes' British driver Lewis Hamilton (right) is congratulated by team-mates after the Formula One Grand Prix de France at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, southern France, on June 23, 2019. PHOTO | GERARD JULIEN |

What you need to know:

  • At the start, Hamilton made a clean getaway. Behind him, there was intense jostling for position along the 386-metre stretch to Turn One.

After the drama in Canada pitting Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton over the five-second penalty that snatched victory from the German's win, all eyes were on the two drivers in France and how their renewed rivalry would play out.

Qualifying at the Circuit Paul Ricard presented a pleasant mix-up towards the middle of the grid as both McLarens clinched fifth and sixth positions. Vettel, who had been outpaced by his teammate, Charles Leclerc, throughout the weekend, couldn't manage better than seventh. Hamilton managed to set a New Track Record on his way to setting pole, comfortably eclipsing his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who just couldn't keep up.

At the start, Hamilton made a clean getaway. Behind him, there was intense jostling for position along the 386-metre stretch to Turn One.

Bottas went left behind Hamilton and Leclerc took his chance sweeping out to the right. Approaching Turn One, Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who started fourth, was on the inside of the left-hander and could see the McLaren of Carlos Sainz about half a car's length ahead of him.

The inside of Turn One gave Verstappen the advantage of being on the outside of Turn Two and the Red Bull launched and got side by side with Leclerc's Ferrari.

It was wheel to wheel action but Leclerc held his nerve to get to Turn Three first. SportPesa Racing Point's Sergio Perez found himself way off track on the first lap and as per the rules, had to go round a bollard in order to get back on track.

It came as a surprise to him later when he was given a five-second penalty for having been judged to gain an advantage despite following the rules 'off road'.
By the seventh lap, Vettel had managed to pass both the McLarens and set his sights on Verstappen who was eight seconds ahead. To prevent the undercut, Verstappen was called in to the pits on the 20th lap.

'ONE-STOP STRATEGY'

Ferrari opted to have Vettel do the opposite of their competitor, with the German being told to “go as long as possible.”

Teams were on a one-stop strategy and soon, Leclerc came in for fresh tyres followed by Bottas. Hamilton came in to put on the hard compound just shy of the halfway mark of the race. Vettel couldn't stay out for long and ended up swapping tyres just five laps after Verstappen had done so.

The middle stint of the race saw Hamilton opening the gap to the rest of the field. Bottas was more than ten seconds behind the race leader, and the gap continued to widen.

Eight laps from the end, Hamilton, who had hitherto set majority of the fastest laps in the race, was told that it looked like Vettel was going to pit while in fifth position in order to make a run for the fastest lap of the race and earn the extra point that was introduced this year.

It was another way of telling Hamilton that he needed to ease on the gas pedal. Two laps later, Romain Grosjean in the Haas became the race's only casualty bowing out on a nightmare weekend for the American team.

McLaren's Lando Norris was on course to finish seventh behind his teammate when his car suffered a hydraulic issue. It meant that he had to muster all the experience he has to nurse the car home as lurking behind him were Renault's Daniel Ricciardo, Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen and the other Renault of Nico Hulkenberg.

TWO FIVE-SECOND PEANLTIES

Heading into Turn One, Ricciardo made one of his trademark moves from the outside and was well ahead of Norris.

The Australian, however, couldn't keep his car on the track and cut the chicane.

When he regained entry, he forced Norris into the run-off area on the exit of Turn Two.

This made it easier for Raikkonen and Hulkenberg to pass Norris. Ricciardo was not done just yet as he lost a position to Raikkonen and went about overtaking the Finn by using the run-off area of the track on the right side. His daring moves this time did not come through and instead, they led to two five-second penalties which demoted him to eleventh, meaning that he left France without a point.

When Ferrari felt assured that Vettel was not gaining enough on Verstappen, they pitted the German and went after the low-hanging fruit, the single extra point for the fastest lap.

At the time, Bottas was to take it. Unknown to many, however, Hamilton was pushing to regain the point, which he did at the chequered flag, only for Vettel to snatch it by just 0.024 of a second a minute and three seconds later.

Vettel can count himself successful for preventing Hamilton from securing his sixth Grand Slam (pole position, leading every lap of the race and setting the fastest lap) but he leaves France feeling that he underachieved.

His teammate, Leclerc, caught up with Bottas on the penultimate lap but couldn't find a way through. Hamilton has now won six of the last seven races and Bottas will need to recover and regroup quickly if he is to give the five-time world champion a run for his money before the end of the season.