Max Verstappen threw down a big marker for the 2021 World Championship at Paul Ricard on Sunday, extending his lead and putting Mercedes in their place. Our 2021 French Grand Prix Result Review + Great and Grape tries to capture as much of the action as possible.
Our review covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to in the laps that matter. Plus more.
We throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend.
The 2021 French Grand Prix Result Review + Great and Grape gives you just enough to catch up, and stand by for our Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far.
2021 French Grand Prix Result – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. Normally it is five or ten, so you know it was a good race if there’s more than ten.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Lap 1 – Verstappen leads Lewis Hamilton off the line but fails to make the first corner and by running wide has to dodge some bollards handing the lead to Lewis Hamilton who zooms off in front. All the rest of the cars behave themselves. For a change Daniel Ricciardo gets the better of Lando Norris.
ORDER – HAM VER BOT PER SAI GAS LEC ALO RIC NOR
Lap 3 – The cars have already socially distanced to a gap that ensures the aero won’t really work for the car behind enough for overtaking. Looks like we’ll have to wait for the pitstops for the next interesting bit. Unless a back marker/s does something interesting/stupid.
Lap 5 – Cue the replay of the two Haas drivers nearly running into each other as Mazepin attempts to overtake Mick Schumacher.
Lap 6 – Waiting for more mentions of the coloured run off area as the race excitement flattens out. Checking when the Euros starts tonight.
Lap 11 – An overtaking manoeuvre! Daniel Ricciardo takes Fernando Alonso. And what’s this, another one straight away as Lando Norris ensures Ricciardo’s joy is short lived by getting past Alonso too. Two laps later Vettel steals the last point off Alonso.
ORDER – HAM VER BOT PER SAI GAS LEC RIC NOR ALO
Lap 15 – Ricciardo keeps the passing coming by getting Charles Leclerc who pits at the end of the lap. The Ferrari driver pits for new tyres and comes out second last. The meat in Haas sandwich. That’s Haas by the way. Ricciardo pits on lap 17 to try and undercut Gasly despite him looking a chance to actually do it on track.
Lap 18 – 4th, 5th, 6th all pit – Bottas, Saiz, Gasly. Ricciardo successfully undercuts both Gasly and Sainz. A decent strategy and solid driving giving the Australian a chance to shine. Bottas came back out in an easy 4th place. Top four don’t look like being bothered at all this month.
Lap 19 – Max Verstappen pits looking to undercut Hamilton. Bottas closes in on Max Verstappen as an insight into how good the undercut is.
Lap 20 – Lewis Hamilton pits and as he charges out of the pits the Red Bull of Max Verstappen is alongside, and has the inside line into the sweeping left hander to start the lap. Verstappen has taken the net lead of the race over Hamilton. Perez, who is yet to pit remain in front on track.
ORDER – PER VER HAM BOT NOR VET STR OCO GIO RAI
Lap 23- Lewis is all over the back of Verstappen for the next few laps but Bottas is even closer to the back of Lewis Hamilton. A fine tactical battle between teams and drivers awaits. All this time Sergio Perez leads up the road. He pits on lap 25 with a 6 second gap which turns into a 18 second deficit.
Lap 26 – Ricciardo is a man on the move taking Giovinazzi for 9th. And Sainz not much longer after that.
Lap 31 – Norris nails Sainz for 8th place and closes in quickly on his team mate.
Lap 32 – Verstappen sensationally pits creating a two stop strategy. He resumes in fourth. Lando Norris meanwhile, has stolen two places from the Stroll and Leclerc. Not long after his team mate Ricciardo let him through.
ORDER – HAM BOT VER PER VET NOR RIC GAS ALO SAI
Lap 38 – Max Verstappen is catching the two Mercedes, but the question is if/when Mercedes need to make their second pitstop. Will he have enough time? This is building nicely for a great finish.
Lap 43 – Verstappen is still closing in on the Mercedes (within DRS now to Bottas). A quick check shows that for all Lando Norris’s good racecraft in fifth place, he as best of the rest is still 50 seconds behind the last of the big two cars.
Lap 44 – Valtteri Bottas outbrakes himself going into one of the early corner a slides wide. Verstappen gets by is now 6 seconds behind Hamilton. The Mercedes and Red Bull battle for a few corners with some elbows out racing.
Lap 46 – Verstappen closes in on Hamilton who responds with pace. Interesting radio communication from Bottas to pitlane where the driver blames the team for not giving him a second pitstop as he asked for earlier.
Lap 49 – Five laps to go and Hamilton v Verstappen is separated by just two and a half second. Perez takes Bottas in a great move and doing a solid job as Max back up. It was a very robust move.
Lap 51 – Gap at the front closes to 1.6 seconds, Verstappen looking good for a pass.
Lap 52 – Verstappen right on Hamilton’s tail as the lap starts. Can he get past this time? You bet as the DRS opens up the rear wing and Verstappen gets Hamilton going into the chicane on the back straight and takes the lead!
Lap 53 – Verstsappen extends the gap to Hamilton on the last lap and he wins the French Grand Prix
FINAL ORDER – VER HAM PER BOT NOR RIC GAS ALO VET STR
2021 French Grand Prix Result – RACE RATING
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 8/10
Pole to Verstappen and a late overtaking move for the lead is a bit of a statement to throw down for the Championship. Especially this track where Mercedes have been number one in previous seasons. The drives of the number twos points to a new Constructor title winner too.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6 /10
Passes for the lead, passes among the top few cars, passes down the field. Maybe not quantity but quality. After an early race sorting out period the disintegrating Pirellis opened up the racing.
ENDING 8 / 10
Verstappen’s late race charge from a second pitstop to overtake both Mercedes to win the race last on provided plenty of tension.
OVERALL RATING 22 / 30
Slow burner but can’t complain about passing moves on track for the win late on in the race. Unless you’re hard to please, am a Hamilton fan or hate both drivers.
2021 SEASON RACE RANKINGS
Bahrain GP – 25/30
Emilia-Romagna GP – 17/30
Portuguese GP – 11/30
Spanish GP – 18/30
Monaco GP – 12/30
Azerbaijan GP = 23/30
2021 French Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 / -2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Win from Pole, passing his Championship rival for that race win with a lap to go must feel pretty sweet.
THE GREAT – DANIEL RICCIARDO
A better race for the Australian and was ahead of his team mate for a while which is a rare thrill in 2021. Eventually let him pass but still a decent result.
THE GREAT – LANDO NORRIS
Best of the rest again, and looking good for doing it week after week. Some good overtaking moves after falling backward at the start.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
FERNANDO ALONSO – Good drive from Alonso scoring points again and finishing and qualifying against his team mate who has just been re-signed for three seasons. Which seems a little odd.
SERGIO PEREZ – Takes the final podium place and his racecraft is providing exactly what Red Bull want. Able to win in Max’s absence like in Baku, and being able to back up Max in this race and able to run with alternative strategies.
GEORGE RUSSELL – 12th place finish and ahead of both Ferraris is a great job, but that Williams point still remains out of reach.
ASTON MARTINS – Two points finishes from 12th and 19th on the grid is a decent end result for the green-ish machines.
THE GRAPE-EST – VALTTERI BOTTAS
Yes fourth place is hardly the worst result but how the race unfolded for him when you are fighting rumours of your demise for next season’s drive wouldn’t help. Made a mistake to let Verstappen by which eventually saw his team mate overtaken too. Then the radio complaint about not going on a two stop strategy that he raised earlier questions the team’s commitment to him.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Yuki Tsunoda – Spinning off in qualifying doesn’t help his reputation as a little bit wild. He wouldn’t want to underperform for too long given the ruthlessness of the Red Bull driver program.
Ferrari – Turned 5th and 7th on the grid to 11th and 16th. At least Leclerc was the only driver that finished in the same position as his car number.
2021 French Grand Prix Result – Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the 2021 French Grand Prix and the overall 2021 F1 Season Power Rankings leader/s.
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