Lewis Hamilton is back in charge of the world championship after Sebastian Vettel’s mistake at the start of the French Grand Prix.
With a new Mercedes engine, Hamilton was dominant all weekend, taking a crushing victory from pole position. His lead over Vettel, who finished fifth, is 14 points.
Vettel has shown a tendency in the past 12 months to make mistakes at important moments, and so it was again. The German got away from the line well but locked up around the first corner and banged into Valtteri Bottas as they vied for second place at 210mph.
Vettel’s front wing was damaged; Bottas had a punctured rear tyre. Both returned to pits.
The safety car was brought out and Vettel was handed a five-second penalty. He came out in 17th place but quickly nipped through the field as soon as the race restarted after five laps of sedation. He was up to 10th by lap 10 and fifth by lap 20 of 53.
All the while, Hamilton was in charge at the front.
Vettel showed glimpses of fragility last year, making mistakes in Baku, Singapore and Mexico. He also made a botched attempt to win the race in Baku this season, only to go from fourth to second and lose points to Hamilton instead.
‘It’s a beautiful Sunday,’ said Hamilton, congratulating England from the cockpit on their 6-1 win over Panama. ‘Happy Sunday everyone.’
Vettel got up as high as third but could not make the tyres he was re-shod with on the first lap last the rest of the race and lost some ground through needing to stop again.
Max Verstappen finished second, seven seconds behind Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen was third and Daniel Ricciardo fourth. Bottas finished seventh, hardly too impressive given the natural speed of his Mercedes and Vettel’s more rapid progress elsewhere.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso made contact with Vettel’s Ferrari on the re-start at Turn 4 and complained over the radio: ‘I hope he has damage. It was a stupid move on lap one.’
The Spaniard, victorious in a Toyota at Le Mans a week ago, later said: ‘I have no tyres. I have no brakes. I am out of the points. I am trying my best but I don’t much care.’ It completed a weekend of implosion for McLaren. Both Alonso and Vandoorne, finishing 12th, were lapped. Alonso did not even get to the end, perhaps fed up with the pointlessness of it all. Goodbye Eric Boullier. A Freddo for your troubles.
Local interest in the first French Grand Prix in a decade diminished on the first lap when Force India’s Esteban Ocon clashed with Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and both men retired.
Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin was handed a five-second penalty for driving his car unnecessarily slowly under the safety car. No chortling please.
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