2019 French Grand Prix Results – The Great and Grape

The race has been won and run, and the 2019 French Grand Prix results are confirmed, and like most things in sport, we have our thoughts on the race, and the drivers are here with our Great and Grape of the race.

We feature a few of our thoughts of the race and rate it out of 50, plus the all important Great and Grape. Where we assign points for those who had a good race, bad race, and also based on a few other mildly important stats.

Plenty to get through, so straight into the 2019 French Grand Prix Results – Great and Grape.

We confirm it is as exciting as the race itself.

2019 FRENCH GRAND PRIX IN 50 WORDS OR LESS

Lewis Hamilton got off well from pole, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, Lewis Hamilton won the race. 

2019 FRENCH GRAND PRIX RESULTS – MOMENT OF THE RACE

Daniel Ricciardo’s last lap was the highlight, and he was punished accordingly for the audacity of providing entertainment.

2019 FRENCH GRAND PRIX RESULTS – RACE RATING

Was it a good race? Well here’s our sort of scientific rating out of 50.

SURPRISE – 0/10

There was barely even a retirement to raise the eyebrows. Just one – Grosjean, no surprise.

SUSPENSE – 3/10

Daniel Ricciardo’s last lap was interesting, as was whether Lando Norris’ car was going to reward a fantastic weekend.

RACING – 1/10

Not much overtaking, with very little positional swapping happening outside of the pitlane.

SIGNIFICANT EVENT – 2/10

Not really. Vettel’s off day was of mild interest. As was the form of McLaren for the midfield battle.

SEASON DEFINING – 2/10

The blip of Ferrari form at Canada has disappeared with Hamilton > Bottas > Ferrari order resumed.

TOTAL RACE RATING 8/50

Never to be watched again. Even the highlights programs will be filling.

2019 FRENCH GRAND PRIX RESULTS – GREAT or GRAPE

Who was king of the road,? Who was the villain? Who stunk up the place? Who outperformed expectations? Or was just plain unlucky? We split up the best of the best and worst of the worst with Great and Grape of the 2019 French Grand Prix results.

THE GREAT

LEWIS HAMILTON (Best of the Best)
Qual 1st – Race 1st – Led every lap

Why so great? –  Took pole, led every lap, won the race, extended his lead in the championship, demoralised his team mate just a little more. And had time to tells fans to blame F1 bosses for the boring races. What else do you want from a driver at a race?

CHARLES LECLERC
Qual 3rd – Race 3rd

Why so great? –  Took advantage of Vettel being behind him with a solid drive to third. Was in the podium places for all but four laps around pitstops. Needs a few more races like this to get in front of Vettel and eliminate any chance of team orders.

MAX VERSTAPPEN
Qual 4th – Race 4th

Why so great? –  Another weekend of maximum return from the ever maturing Verstappen. He’s easily covering his under performing team mate in every field so far. One wonders though how long he will put up with a Red Bull that seems less likely to win races on pure than ever.

CARLOS SAINZ
Qual 6th – Race 6th

Why so great? – Best of the rest for the race, he took advantage of a McLaren that was on form and reliable. Outqualified by his team mate, Sainz got in front of Norris from the start, and stayed in front from there onward. 

LANDO NORRIS
Qual 5th – Race 9th

Why so great? – Produced the qualifying performance of the session to end up best of the rest. Was displaced by Sainz at the start, and Vettel a few laps later, but held his own for the rest of the afternoon. Was running in 7th when he hit car problems, which saw him overtaken a few times on the last lap. His best performance yet. 

DANIEL RICCIARDO
Qual 8th – Race 11th

Why so great? – A solid enough 8th qualifying position – behind the McLarens and five of the top six cars – but was ahead of Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly. Turned into a strong 7th after what seems like a standard poor Aussie F1 get away when he dropped to 10th on lap 1. Was looking on for 7th after some risky last lap moves, but was given two x 5 second punishment which handed him 11th instead of 7th. Well ahead of team mate in qualifying, and his fine form may be getting Nico Hulkenberg closer to the exit too.

ANTONIO GIOVINAZZI
Qual 10th – Race 16th

Why so great? – So the 16th race position isn’t that great, but his 10th place qualifying was a season high, and saw off the more experienced team mate Kimi Raikkonen for a change.

THE GRAPE

PIERRE GASLY (Grapest Race)
Qual 9th – Race 11th

Why so bad? – Well, outqualified again, despite gaining a sport in the race, he soon found himself down in 15th after a pitstop, and could only recover to 11th. Rumours he could be replaced with former Red Bull reject Dani Kvyat shows just how far he is on the outer. A real shame it isn’t working out, as he was one of the best racers in F2/GP2 of recent seasons.

SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Qual 7th – Race 5th

Why so bad? – Was always going to struggle for a podium after only qualifying 7th, and his eventual 5th place in the race was a full minute and two seconds behind winner Lewis Hamilton and 30 seconds behind Max Verstappen after a late stop for new tyres in search of a fastest lap. That worked at least. Talk of retirement with this weekend, and last race in Canada, and a failed appeal all rolling into one unhappy Seb. Perhaps the F1 bosses should help pay for the severance package so at least there’s one point of interest for the rest of 2019.

ROMAIN GROSJEAN
Qual 16th – Race Retired

Why so bad? Was tooling towards the back of the grid – albeit in front of the Williams’ cars – and was eventually put out of his misery by car problems.

2019 FRENCH GRAND PRIX RESULT – OUR DRIVER POINTS

We have our very own system of awarding point for the above Great and Grape, plus rewarding other stats from the F1 weekend to have our own measure of who is going well in F1 in 2019, not just by scoring points, but performance in relation to car and expectations. The latest Grand Prix’s results are below.

2019 SEASON GREAT AND GRAPE – DRIVER POINTS

There’s no point in compiling of all the F1 data we can find, without working out a grand total. So here it is.1 point for featuring in Great, -1 for featuring in the Grape. A bonus point for the very best and worst.

1 point for Outqualifying team mate.

1 point for Finishing ahead of team mate, although this is subjective if need be. Especially in the case of a DNF.

3 points for a Race win, 2 for Podium, 1 for Fastest Lap. 

1 point for most overtakes on the first lap. 0.5 if it is shared, no matter how many drivers share it.

2 points for Pole Position, 1 for a Front Row start.

1 point for Best of the Rest in Qualifying and Race.

-1 point for an avoidable accident or silly incident.

With thanks to the data provided at the excellent Racefans website.

2019 FRENCH GRAND PRIX RESULT