French Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton refuses to enter debate on Sebastian Vettel mistakes

No sooner than England had destroyed Panama than Lewis Hamilton dished out a similar beating to his rivals in the first French Grand Prix since 2008.

The reigning world champion survived a near close encounter with arch-rival Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari at the start, but his team-mate Valtteri Bottas was less fortunate as the red car tangled with his Mercedes, condemning both to catch-up races as they headed for the pits with damage, and Vettel to the naughty step with a five-second penalty for causing a collision.

Hamilton refused to be drawn into discussion about Vettel’s occasional mistakes, notably in Baku and Singapore last year, but said: “It would have been very good for the team to have got a 1-2, but that’s the kind of racing incident you can get in Turn 1, those things can happen. We all go into that first corner at great speeds. I went deep and wide as saw they were really close to me and thought I was going to get rear-ended, but I don’t feel he makes more mistakes than anyone else. We are all on the edge fighting for World Championships, putting our cars and our lives on the line. It’s not like a train track where you stay on rails. Sometimes you go off. We are only human.”

After escaping all of that all he really had to do was control the pace from the front, and stay out of trouble, and this he did with his customary cool on his way to his 65th grand prix success and a 14-point lead in the world championship over Vettel as the pendulum swung back in his favour.

“Well done boys,” he told his crew on the slowing down lap, among them the team back in Brixworth which had provided him with the upgraded engine that had won first time out.

“I’m very grateful for a solid weekend. I’ve been with my guys for six years and they are continually pushing boundaries and never giving up, so I’m grateful for all their work. This is a great day, I enjoyed the race. It was personally my best-everyone in France.”

With Vettel and Bottas delayed in the first-corner carnage, which also resulted indirectly in the elimination of French favourites Esteban Ocon in a Force India and Pierre Gasly in a Toro Rosso when the two long-time rivals collided in Turn 4, Red Bull seemed poised for a strong day.

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Max Verstappen kept Hamilton honest throughout, without the speed to challenge seriously. “It was a good race and I tried to follow Lewis, but of course he was controlling the race,” the Dutch prodigy said. “I didn’t really have to work very hard for it, but it’s good to finish second.

“There was no way I could close the gap to Lewis. I could see he was quite confident, so I tried to do my own race and see what I could do. I was happier on the soft tyres where I could really push, but it was quite a lonely race, but at least with Lewis I could look at something. He did his race and I did mine, so there was not much to do other than force yourself to drive a clean race.”

Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo’s great drive up to third place went wonky towards the end when debris damage to his front wing left him prey to Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn had to go the long way round in the Turn 1 melee, dropping down to seventh place before a strong recovery drive that saw him run on his ultrasoft tyres until the 34th lap. On a new set of supersofts he then launched a challenge on Ricciardo which eventually bore fruit on the 47th as the Australian began to struggle for pace with his aerodynamic damage.

“I think it got messy for everyone in the first corner,” he said, “but I had to go the wrong side and got slowed down a bit. But we made a decent recovery with a long first stint which worked well and at the end of the day we had the speed to get on the podium.”

Vettel, like Bottas, was fortunate that a virtual safety car deployment for their collision enabled both to make up ground as the field was slowed down, but the best the German cold muster was fifth place. His 10-point haul against Hamilton’s 25 thus saw the one-point lead he had carried into the race become a 14-point deficit.

Bottas seemed likely to recover to sixth, but damage to his Mercedes’ floor cost him speed, and a problem with a jack in his second pit stop and a late virtual safety car when Lance Stroll’s tardy Williams blew its left front tyre restricted him to seventh by the flag. Sixth was thus a decent reward for Kevin Magnussen, who helmed his Haas-Ferrari to another strong finish in sixth after Carlos Sainz’s Renault had dropped back to eighth ahead of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in the manufacturer’s home race, in the closing laps.

F1’s up-and-comer Charles Leclerc, tipped to replace Raikkonen at Ferrari next year, ran as high as sixth early on in his Alfa Romeo Sauber, with which he eventually claimed the final point.

As he savoured his own success Hamilton admitted that he did not, after all see the England match.

“Honestly, I didn’t get to see it. When I walked into the garage to put my helmet on I saw a screen when it was six-nil, then I did my three grid laps and came back to go to the toilet, and it was six-one. That’s a mighty score, what a great result for England! They need to keep opening that can of whoop-ass!

“When I have a day like today and see the Union Jack above me it’s such a great feeling. On top of that I grew up playing football, I was massively into it. But I had to stop when I was in my teenage phase when hacking was crazy, because I didn’t want to get injured and not be able to race. But I’ve watched England year on year, and it’s so great to see the success. There is so much talent in the UK that I don’t know why we haven’t won more. But it’s been a great day for the UK and hope I’ve contributed something towards that.”