France. Le Castellet. Max Verstappen claimed his first F1 hat trick this season while his team mate Sergio Perez secured third position in the most breathtaking race held at Circuit Paul Richard so far in this season of French Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton though leading till the last moment had to satisfy with second position.
Max Verstappen now leads by 12-point over Lewis Hamilton in the championship standing and Sergio Pérez securing third position ahead of Valtteri Bottas. So team Red Bull now has a 37-point advantage over team Mercedes in the constructors standing.
The race that saw wheel to wheel chase
Earlier in the day, Verstappen started from the pole position but makes an error into Turn two and Hamilton took the lead instantly. Verstappen eventually corrected that fault and overtook Hamilton on the penultimate lap in a dramatic wheel to wheel battle to win the race. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas secured P4 behind Red Bulls Sergio Perez. McLaren ‘s Lando Norris was 5th and his team mate Daniel Ricciardo finished in P6. This is the second time after Imola, that both McLaren drivers secured positions within the top 6. In the P7 was AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who performed his best ever finish in his home Grand Prix ahead of the Alpine of Fernando Alonso. The Ferrari drivers failed to make a mark in the race. While Carlos Sainz finished 11th, his team mate Charles Leclerc finished 16th.
Interesting qualifying round
During the qualifying round, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen holds off Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton to take pole by four tenths of a second at the end of the qualifying round. Hamilton’1s teammate, Bottas secured third position in the qualifying round ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. In spite of late changes to his Mercedes W12 Hamilton had to satisfy with Verstappen taking the pole position but he was able to overtake Bottas and take P2 on the grid.
Hamilton took pole and victory at both the previous two races of French Grand Prix that took place over 53 laps of the 5.8 km Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet. The coming two races are scheduled at Red Bull ring circuit in Austria and team Red Bull is all set to secure title.
Coming next in the Formula One season for 2021 is the Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis Der Steiermark 2021 (Styrian Grand Prix), scheduled from June 25 to 27, 2021, at Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.
Click here to view the complete Formula One race Calendar for 2021.
To catch hold of the latest and related sports news please visit the sports section of Transcontinental times.
Comments are closed.