The FORMULA 1 EMIRATES GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE 2021 marked the first race of the season’s first triple header weekend. It was a race won by Red Bull’s gamble on the two-stop strategy.
Max Verstappen got away well off the line from pole position, entering the first corner well ahead of Lewis Hamilton. His car became unsettled on the exit of turn 1 and forced him off the track. He rejoined safely, but behind Hamilton.
Hamilton was about 3 seconds ahead when the pit window opened for the one-stop strategy. Valtteri Bottas was the first of the leading 3 to dive into the pit lane for a set of fresh hard compound tyres on lap 18. Verstappen responded the following lap to cover off Bottas and try to undercut Hamilton for the lead of the race. He came out ahead of Bottas.
Hamilton pitted on lap 20 to cover off Verstappen, but he came out of the pit lane narrowly behind Verstappen, giving the current championship leader the net lead of the Grand Prix. The undercut proved to be far more powerful than at other circuits.
Both Mercedes chased after Verstappen in hot pursuit, with around a second and a half covering the top 3. Hamilton struggled to stay within DRS range of the Red Bull, dropping out of range for a few laps, while Bottas kept DRS on the Brit. Eventually Hamilton regained DRS and a couple of laps later, Bottas dropped out of the DRS range after a poor lap and began to fall back.
Eventually both Mercedes drivers appeared to lose pace and drop back. On lap 32, Red Bull took the gamble, calling Verstappen into the pit lane for a set of medium tyres to take him to the end of the race. The opportunity for Mercedes to respond was never really there and pitting would have forced Mercedes to give up track position to Verstappen, so they stayed out.
The Red Bull pit wall was struggling with radio issues for their leading car, being unable to hear their Verstappen. The Mercedes garage was also struggling with a small radio issue, with Hamilton temporarily being unable to hear his engineer.
On lap 44, Verstappen had closed in on Bottas. He had DRS down the main straight, but he was not able to make a move on Bottas into the first corner. But the pressure of the pursuing Red Bull forced Bottas into a mistake. Bottas took a wide line in turn 1, which forced him into the wrong line for turn 2 and compromised his run down the straight. The two were side-by-side down the straight, but Verstappen got by Bottas on the inside of turn 3.
Verstappen was now in P2 and needed to chase down Hamilton for the lead of the race, but it appeared that he may have used up more of his medium tyres than he would have wanted to. With three laps remaining in the race, Verstappen moved into DRS range of the leading Mercedes. The following lap, Verstappen was able to overtake Hamilton for the race lead into turn 8 with some help from the DRS.
With this race victory, Max Verstappen maintains his World Drivers’ Championship lead, also earning the bonus point for fastest lap for good measure. Lewis Hamilton limits the damage by maintaining his P2 finish, while Sergio Perez takes the bottom step of the podium from Valtteri Bottas.
This was the first of 2021’s back-to-back-to-back race weekends. Next up, the teams will be heading to Austria for the first of two races that will take place at the Red Bull Ring venue. The race will be on June 27.
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