Verstappen Makes Late Overtake On Hamilton To Win In France

Calum Gill 15:58 20/06/2021

Max Verstappen made a late overtake on title rival Lewis Hamilton to take his third win of the 2021 season at the French Grand Prix.

A great strategy call from Red Bull to turn Verstappen's race into a two-stop paid dividends as their Dutch driver cruised past Mercedes driver Hamilton into turn 8 on the penultimate lap, Hamilton's tyres having fallen off in the latter stages. It had not all been plain sailing for Verstappen though, after he had lost the lead at the start due to a mistake at turn 2, which gave Hamilton the lead.

However, Verstappen got back ahead thanks to an undercut from Red Bull when Hamilton made his stop. Verstappen then pitted for the mediums, giving the lead to Hamilton, before catching up to and passing the Briton on the 52nd lap of the 53 lap race.

Sergio Perez completed the podium for Red Bull after passing Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages, who finished fourth. McLaren had a great race, with Lando Norris finishing in fifth and Daniel Ricciardo finishing in sixth. Pierre Gasly drove a strong home race to come home seventh, ahead of Alpine's Fernando Alonso. The two Aston Martins of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll completed the top 10.

-Full weekend results

Red Bull deliver when Mercedes mess up

Paul Ricard in the south of France is notorious for producing dull races but this one was a stunner as the battle between Verstappen and Hamilton swung back and forth. But Mercedes will rue their error in allowing Verstappen back into the lead after they followed the Dutchman's on-track error on the first lap with their own in the strategy room. "This one's on us," chief strategist James Vowles said on the radio to Hamilton after the race, acknowledging the error." Thank you for doing everything you could to recover that race."

Verstappen appeared to have gifted Hamilton an unexpected opportunity when he slid wide at the first corner and ran off track allowing Hamilton to slip into the lead. That put Mercedes in control of the race, but they surrendered their position with a bad error in Hamilton's pit-stop timing.  Hamilton was leading with Verstappen second and Bottas third entering the pit stop period, and Mercedes called in Bottas first, trying to grab second from Red Bull.

Bringing Hamilton in the next time around, as Red Bull did with Verstappen, would have secured the lead for Hamilton and he likely would have been able to control the race from the front for a comfortable victory from there on. Instead, they left Hamilton out for a second lap and Verstappen used his new tyres to produce a brilliant out lap, and when Hamilton emerged from the pits, Verstappen swept past him into the lead.

Hamilton hounded Verstappen over the next few laps, apparently much faster than Verstappen, as both drivers radioed to their pits that their tyres were already struggling. Hamilton told his team to make sure they brought him in before Verstappen for a second stop, but Red Bull again jumped first, bringing Verstappen in for a second stop on lap 32, only 13 laps after his first stop.

Verstappen rejoined nearly 20 seconds behind but immediately began closing in on the Mercedes. He caught and passed Bottas on lap 44 and then homed in on Hamilton, diving past into the chicane on lap 52, with a lap and a half to go. A frustrated Bottas, who radioed his team to swearingly ask why they had not believed him when he said it would be a two-stop race, dropped back and lost third to Perez on lap 49 as Red Bull rubbed salt into Mercedes' wounds. 

The rest of the field

Carlos Sainz was eleventh after a poor race for the Ferrari team saw him drop six places and end up with no points. George Russell put in his best finish of the season in 12th, which sees Williams go back above Haas in the constructors standings, after overtaking AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda in the final few laps. Esteban Ocon was 14th in the Alpine, ahead of Alfa-Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi and Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen was 17th for Alfa-Romeo, ahead of Williams' Nicholas Latifi. The two Haas cars brought up the rear, with Mick Schumacher ahead of Nikita Mazepin. No-one failed to finish the race, the first time it has happened since Austria 2019.

2021 French Grand Prix classification