Lewis Hamilton overtook Sebastian Vettel to lead the F1 Drivers’ Championship once again after winning the French Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen.

‘Happy Sunday everyone’ were Hamilton’s words after winning the French Grand Prix to take a 14-point lead over Sebastian Vettel in the Formula One Drivers’ Championship.

It was not such a happy Sunday for Vettel, who collided with Valtteri Bottas at the first corner as the lights went out, causing front-wing damage to himself while puncturing one of Bottas’ tyres.

Still on the first lap, Pierre Gasly lost his rear end and smacked into Esteban Ocon, ending both of their races – not a happy home race for the two Frenchmen.

The safety car was deployed so that the marshalls could clear the track and remove Ocon’s car. Some cars, including that of Vettel and Bottas, used this opportunity to pit. Vettel changed his front wing and put on a set of soft tyres, while Bottas likewise changed to the softs.

When the safety car came in on lap six, Hamilton – armed with a brand new engine – raced away at the front of the pack, with Verstappen in second and Carlos Saintz in third.

Vettel, who received a five-second penalty for his collision with Bottas and fell back to 18th after his stop, was making light work of working his way through the pack as he moved up into 10th by lap 11. Bottas had no such luck and struggled to work his way back.

Noting Vettel’s good progress, it was ‘Hammertime’ for Hamilton, with the four-time world champion pumping in a succession of fast laps to quadruple his lead to around eight seconds. It meant that by the time he pitted, he could comfortably rejoin ahead of Verstappen.

On lap 35, after all the frontrunners pitted, Vettel surprisingly found himself in third, but with much older tyres. Daniel Ricciardo made the most of his fresh tyres to outbrake Vettel into turn 11 and snatch the final podium position back. The German then lost another position to his teammate Raikkonen, who was a couple of seconds quicker on the supersofts.

On lap 40, Mercedes opted to pit Bottas for a second time and fit the supersofts, but a problem removing the right rear significantly delayed him. The Finn rejoined in ninth, losing three places. Vettel followed suit on the next lap, but took the ultrasofts and his five-second time penalty for colliding with Bottas, and still managed to come out in fifth.

Raikkonen was lighting up the time sheets in search of a podium finish and he finally caught up with Ricciardo, passing him to take third on lap 47.

With only three laps to go, Lance Stoll’s front-left tyre blew up, causing the Canadian to crash. The virtual safety car was deployed, meaning that no more action ensued until the closing stages of the final lap.

Hamilton cruised to victory by seven seconds ahead of Verstappen while Raikkonen finished 25 seconds behind the race winner.

With Vettel finishing in fifth, it means that Hamilton now has 145 points in the Drivers’ Championship, 14 ahead of the Ferrari driver.

Race classification:

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