2021 French Grand Prix

2021 French Grand Prix
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Round	7 of 2021
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Race Details
Date	June 20, 2021
Race Number	1042
Official Name	Formula 1 Emirates Grand Prix de France 2021
Location	Circuit Paul Ricard Le Castellet, Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.842 km (3.630 mi)
Distance	53 laps, 309.626 km (192.393 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-Honda
Time	1:29.990
Fastest Lap
Driver	Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-Honda
Time	1:36.404 on lap 35
Podium
First	Max Verstappen
Second	Lewis Hamilton
Third	Sergio Pérez
Lap Leaders

The 2021 French Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Emirates Grand Prix de France 2021) was the seventh race of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship, held at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France between June 18 and June 20 2021.

Max Verstappen took pole position and won the race for Red Bull, despite running wide at the first lap allowing Lewis Hamilton into the lead, but retook the lead with two laps remaining on a two-stop strategy. Hamilton came in second while Sergio Pérez passed Valtteri Bottas for third as Mercedes had to deal with tire wear issues.

Background

The previous running of the French Grand Prix was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the race was reinstated into the 2021 calendar. The race was then brought forward a week earlier from its scheduled date, following the cancelation of the Turkish Grand Prix that was supposed to replace the canceled Canadian Grand Prix.

Heading into the race weekend, Max Verstappen retained his lead ahead of rival Lewis Hamilton by 4 points, both failing to score from the previous round in Baku. Sergio Perez' win with Mercedes' failure to score extended Red Bull's lead to 26 points.

A major topic discussed were the tire failures that caused Lance Stroll and Verstappen's retirements during the Baku round. Pirelli has launched an investigation and found that they were due to a "circumferential break on the inner sidewall which can be related to the running conditions of the tire". Mercedes also made modifications to the steering following Hamilton's mistake on pressing the "magic button" during the race restart to prevent a repeat.

Ahead of the race weekend, it was announced that Romain Grosjean would be participating in a test session for Mercedes on June 29. The former Haas driver, who was unable to race for the last two races of 2020 following a horrific crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, would also be conducting some demonstration laps with the team as well on the race weekend. The rescheduling of the calendar meant that Grosjean would be unable to perform the demonstration laps as it clashes with an IndyCar weekend, but Mercedes have stated that the test would go ahead as planned on the date. The test session was postponed yet again due to travel restrictions.

Ahead of the weekend it was also announced that Esteban Ocon had extended his contract with Alpine for another three years until 2024. Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas has again rubbished rumors that he would be replaced mid-season. McLaren meanwhile ran tributes on their cars to honor longtime shareholder Mansour Ojjeh, who passed away the morning of the previous round.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2021 French Grand Prix is outlined below:

No.	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model	Tyre
3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren F1 Team	McLaren	MCL35M	Mercedes	M12 1.6 V6t	P
4	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team	McLaren	MCL35M	Mercedes	M12 1.6 V6t	P
5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team	Aston Martin	AMR21	Mercedes	M12 1.6 V6t	P
6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Racing	Williams	FW43B	Mercedes	M12 1.6 V6t	P
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	Alfa Romeo	C41	Ferrari	065/6 1.6 V6t	P
9	Nikita Mazepin	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	Haas	VF-21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6 V6t	P
10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	AlphaTauri	AT02	Honda	RA621H 1.6 V6t	P
11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB16B	Honda	RA621H 1.6 V6t	P
14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine F1 Team	Alpine	A521	Renault	E-Tech 21 1.6 V6t	P
16	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	SF21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6 V6t	P
18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team	Aston Martin	AMR21	Mercedes	M12 1.6 V6t	P
22	Yuki Tsunoda	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	AlphaTauri	AT02	Honda	RA621H 1.6 V6t	P
31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine F1 Team	Alpine	A521	Renault	E-Tech 21 1.6 V6t	P
33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB16B	Honda	RA621H 1.6 V6t	P
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	F1 W12	Mercedes	M12 1.6 V6t	P
47	Mick Schumacher	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	Haas	VF-21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6 V6t	P
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	SF21	Ferrari	065/6 1.6 V6t	P
63	George Russell	Williams Racing	Williams	FW43B	Mercedes	M12 1.6 V6t	P
77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	F1 W12	Mercedes	M12 1.6 V6t	P
99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	Alfa Romeo	C41	Ferrari	065/6 1.6 V6t	P
Test Drivers for Practice Sessions Only
45	Roy Nissany	Williams Racing	Williams	FW43B	Mercedes	M12 1.6 V6t	P
Source:

Practice Overview

The full practice results for the 2021 French Grand Prix are outlined below:

No.	Driver	Team	FP1		FP2		FP3
			Time	Pos	Time	Pos	Time	Pos
3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.644	6	1:34.079	14	1:32.759	10
4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:34.707	9	1:33.822	10	1:32.336	6
5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1:35.289	15	1:34.447	15	1:33.200	14
6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1:35.612	17	1:35.331	18	1:33.584	18
7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:35.135	13	1:33.786	9	1:33.328	15
9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari	1:36.651	18	1:35.551	20	1:34.642	20
10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:34.699	8	1:33.696	7	1:32.707	9
11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:34.193	4	1:33.921	12	1:32.238	4
14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	1:34.693	7	1:33.340	4	1:32.624	7
16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:34.950	11	1:33.550	5	1:32.820	11
18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1:35.275	14	1:34.632	16	1:33.051	13
22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	1:34.847	10	1:33.955	13	1:33.424	17
31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:34.329	5	1:33.685	6	1:32.681	8
33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	1:33.880	3	1:32.872	1	1:31.300	1
44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:33.783	2	1:33.125	3	1:32.266	5
45	Roy Nissany	Williams Racing	1:37.881	20	DNP		DNP
47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	1:37.329	19	1:35.512	19	1:34.143	19
55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari	1:35.342	16	1:33.698	8	1:32.195	3
63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	DNP		1:35.266	17	1:33.364	16
77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:33.448	1	1:32.880	2	1:32.047	2
99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:35.116	12	1:33.831	11	1:33.017	12
Source:

Qualifying

Q1

Tsunoda spun and crashed into the wall in Turn 1, stopping the session just minutes after it started. The session ended early with Schumacher, who had managed to qualify into Q2 for the first time in his career, spun and collided with the barriers at Turn 6. Tsunoda thus joined Latifi, Raikkonen, Mazepin and Stroll out of Q1, with Stroll failing to set a lap time due to Schumacher's crash, having his earlier run deleted for track limits violations.

Q2

Bottas ended the session fastest. Out in Q2 were Ocon, Vettel, Giovinazzi, Russell and Schumacher, who set no time due to his accident earlier.

Q3

Verstappen took his fifth career pole, with Hamilton and Bottas splitting him and Red Bull team-mate Perez.

Qualifying Results

The full qualifying results for the 2021 French Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time
1	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda		1	1:31.001		4	1:31.080		1	1:29.990	1
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes		2	1:31.237		2	1:30.788		2	1:30.248	2
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes		4	1:31.669		1	1:30.735		3	1:30.376	3
4	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda		3	1:31.560		3	1:30.971		4	1:30.445	4
5	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari		7	1:32.079		5	1:31.146		5	1:30.840	5
6	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda		6	1:31.898		6	1:31.353		6	1:30.868	6
7	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari		12	1:32.209		9	1:31.567		7	1:30.987	7
8	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes		5	1:31.733		7	1:31.542		8	1:31.252	8
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault		10	1:32.158		8	1:31.549		9	1:31.340	9
10	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes		11	1:32.181		10	1:31.615		10	1:31.382	10
11	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault		9	1:32.139		11	1:31.736				11
12	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes		8	1:32.132		12	1:31.767				12
13	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		13	1:32.722		13	1:31.813				13
14	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes		15	1:33.060		14	1:32.065				14
15	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari		14	1:32.942		NC	—*				15
16	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes		16	1:33.062							16
17	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari		17	1:33.354							17
18	9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari		18	1:33.554							18
107% time: 1:37.371
NC	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes		NC	2:12.584							19†
NC	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda		NC	—							PL‡
Source:

• Bold indicates the fastest driver's time in each session.
• * Schumacher did not set a lap time in Q2, following car damage after a collision at the end of Q1.
• ^† Stroll's initial lap time was deleted for track limits violations. He then failed to improve his lap time due to Schumacher's accident at the end of the session.
• ^‡ Tsunoda did not set a lap time after crashing his car before setting a lap time. He started the race from the pit lane after making a gearbox change.

Grid

The starting grid of the feature race of the 2021 French Grand Prix is outined below:

Show Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Max Verstappen	2
	______________	Lewis Hamilton
Row 2	3	______________
	Valtteri Bottas	4
	______________	Sergio Pérez
Row 3	5	______________
	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	6
	______________	Pierre Gasly
Row 4	7	______________
	Charles Leclerc	8
	______________	Lando Norris
Row 5	9	______________
	Fernando Alonso	10
	______________	Daniel Ricciardo
Row 6	11	______________
	Esteban Ocon	12
	______________	Sebastian Vettel
Row 7	13	______________
	Antonio Giovinazzi	14
	______________	George Russell
Row 8	15	______________
	Mick Schumacher	16
	______________	Nicholas Latifi
Row 9	17	______________
	Kimi Räikkönen	18
	______________	Nikita Mazepin
Row 10	19	______________
	Lance Stroll*	20
	______________

• * Note - Stroll and Tsunoda failed to set a time within the Q1 107% requirement - race at stewards' discretion. Tsunoda penalised five grid places for an unscheduled gearbox change and required to start from the pit lane, as car modified whilst under Parc Ferme conditions.

Race

Results

The full results for the 2021 French Grand Prix are outlined below:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda	53	1:27:25.770	1	25
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	53	+2.904	2	18
3	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-Honda	53	+8.811	4	15
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	53	+14.618	3	12
5	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+1:04.032	8	10
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+1:15.857	10	8
7	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	53	+1:16.596	6	6
8	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	53	+1:17.695	9	4
9	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	53	+1:19.666	12	2
10	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	53	+1:31.946	19	1
11	55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.	Ferrari	53	+1:39.337	5
12	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	52	+1 lap	14
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	52	+1 lap	PL
14	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	52	+1 lap	11
15	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	52	+1 lap	13
16	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	52	+1 lap	7
17	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	52	+1 lap	17
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	52	+1 lap	16
19	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	52	+1 lap	15
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari	52	+1 lap	18
Source:

Milestones

• Fifth career pole position, 13^th career win and first hat trick for Max Verstappen.
• 250^th pole for a car running on Pirelli tires.

Standings

Verstappen extended his lead ahead of Hamilton to 12 points, with both title rivals having tied with the same amount of wins they had so far in the season. While Red Bull extended the constructors' championship lead from Mercedes by 11 points from the double podium, both Ferraris failed to score, hence McLaren retook third in the constructors' standings, while Bottas got back ahead of Leclerc.

Drivers' World Championship Pos. Driver Pts +/- 1 Max Verstappen 131 — 2 Lewis Hamilton 119 — 3 Sergio Pérez 84 — 4 Lando Norris 76 — 5 Valtteri Bottas 59 ▲1 6 Charles Leclerc 52 ▼1 7 Carlos Sainz, Jr. 42 — 8 Pierre Gasly 37 — 9 Daniel Ricciardo 34 ▲1 10 Sebastian Vettel 30 ▼1 11 Fernando Alonso 17 — 12 Esteban Ocon 12 — 13 Lance Stroll 10 — 14 Yuki Tsunoda 8 — 15 Kimi Räikkönen 1 — 16 Antonio Giovinazzi 1 —

Constructors' World Championship Pos. Team Pts +/- 1 Red Bull Racing-Honda 215 — 2 Mercedes 178 — 3 McLaren-Mercedes 110 ▲1 4 Ferrari 94 ▼1 5 AlphaTauri-Honda 45 — 6 Aston Martin-Mercedes 40 — 7 Alpine-Renault 29 — 8 Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 2 —

Only point scoring drivers and constructors are shown.

References

Images and Videos:

References:

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