Daily Times

LE CASTELLET: Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton won the French Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday to retake the overall lead from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who finished fifth after a first lap collision. The victory was the 65th of Hamilton’s F1 career but the Briton’s first in France, which was returning to the calendar after a 10-year absence, and continued a triumphant day for English sports fans. “Great work guys! I’m so happy for England as well,” he said over the team radio, referring to the national soccer team’s 6-1 World Cup rout of Panama in Russia. “It’s a beautiful Sunday, everyone.”

Hamilton, who had started on pole position, now leads Vettel by 14 points after eight of 21 races. The Briton has 145 and German 131. Red Bull’s Dutch 20-year-old Max Verstappen took the chequered flag in second place with Kimi Raikkonen completing the podium for Ferrari and Australian Daniel Ricciardo finishing fourth for Red Bull. Hamilton had never before won in France and his victory at Le Castellet, a southern circuit that last hosted Formula One in 1990, set a record for the most wins at different grands prix.

He had shared the record of 22 with retired seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher. He also extended his record of wins at different circuits to 26. There was drama at the start as Hamilton and Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas lined up on the front row with Vettel just behind in third. Vettel and Bottas collided as they jostled for position, with the German handed a five-second penalty for causing the collision. The incident dropped both to the back of the field after pitstops while the safety car was deployed for four laps with debris scattered across the track from other accidents.

Two of the three French drivers retired on the spot, with Force India’s Esteban Ocon and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly the unlucky casualties. Vettel returned to the pits for a new front wing while Bottas limped back on three wheels and a rim with the remains of the tyre flailing. Denmark’s Kevin Magnussen finished sixth for the Haas team, with Bottas seventh and Carlos Sainz eighth for Renault after losing two places three laps from the end when his car lost power. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg took ninth place with Monaco rookie Charles Leclerc a fine 10th for Sauber and denying Haas’s French driver Romain Grosjean his first point of the season.

Published in Daily Times, June 25^th 2018.