Max Verstappen held his nerve late on to overtake Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap and win the French Grand Prix as Red Bull Racing Honda teammate Sergio Pérez also banked a precious podium place.
The Dutchman swapped places from pole with the reigning world champion throughout the race, however excellent pit stops from his team enabled him to finish strong and overtake on lap 52 of 53 at Le Castellet which extended his drivers’ lead to 12 points over the Mercedes driver.
Mexican Pérez overtook Valtteri Bottas late on as well to claim third and boost Red Bull Racing Honda’s constructors’ lead as Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda’s Pierre Gasly finished in the points again in seventh with Japanese teammate Yuki Tsunoda in 13th place at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Red Bull Racing Honda
MAX VERSTAPPEN – 1st
“Winning this race was an amazing Team effort and to have a double podium at a track like this really shows the hard work everyone is putting in here and in Milton Keynes at our factory and Honda’s. Of course I would have liked to pull off into the distance and cruise ahead on my own but it doesn’t often work like that in Formula One and we really had to work for it today. You can see how close the two teams are and to win like this on strategy with two laps to go is very rewarding. It was certainly not an easy race and I got caught out at Turn 1 and lost the rear which meant I had to go off the track and lost a position to Lewis. I was of course upset at the time but I knew there was a long race ahead and I had to focus. In the first stint I didn’t really have the pace to fight with Lewis so we took the risk to pit first and to be honest I didn’t expect the undercut to work so well that I would come out ahead. They were pushing hard to try and pass me but luckily I could just about stay ahead and I knew I couldn’t make any mistakes. We decided to go for the two-stop strategy which worked out well as our car suited the conditions towards the end of the race as the wind became a little less and the track rubbered in. In the end we made the right calls for both cars and it is great to be on the podium with Checo. We should all enjoy this for a few days until we get to Austria and start again.”
SERGIO PEREZ – 3rd
“The Team did a fantastic job today with great strategy and making the right calls at the right time so well done to everyone here and back at the factory. It’s a great result for them which is what really counts and so I’m happy with that. On my side, this weekend wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be, as drivers we only want to win so I just have to keep working hard, continue improving and getting better results with the great car that I’ve been given. Back to back podiums is still solid points but I just needed probably three more laps to get past Lewis for the 1-2 finish, so we’ll keep pushing to get it at our home race in Austria. I think it will be very good for me to have two races back to back in Spielberg as the first race will give me much more of an understanding of how the car performs around there and as a result a better baseline for race two. Hopefully we can be in contention for the win and continue this momentum.”
CHRISTIAN HORNER – Team Principal
“I’m so proud of the whole Team to bring home back to back race wins and a double podium which extends our lead in both championships. Max got a good start but lost the lead after an early excursion which we managed to survive and, after a stonking out lap following his first pit stop, he recovered track position. We didn’t want to find ourselves in the same position as we did in Barcelona so we pulled the trigger and went for the two stop which thankfully paid off today. It’s always a difficult thing to pit from the lead with 21 laps to go but we don’t shy away from risks and went for it. On Checo’s side, we split the strategy with a one stop which he made work coming home in third place so all round it was a fantastic Team performance. You can see how close it is between the two teams, there is very little between the cars so we’ve just got to keep pushing and looking for more performance. There’s such a long way to go in this championship so you can’t take anything for granted but now we’ll take this momentum with us to Austria for the first of two home Grands Prix for the Team.”
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
PIERRE GASLY – 7th
“I think objectively it was a good race, we finished behind some strong competitors and we can’t be too dissatisfied with that. Obviously deep inside I would’ve liked to have finished even further up the grid in front of my home crowd, but it was a difficult race and I think we did the best we could’ve today. We lost two positions with the pitstop, both Ricciardo and Charles getting the undercut, and that cost us a bit. We’ll have to review the data and see if we could’ve done anything differently. I gave everything I could out there today, and we had some great fights out there, so I have to be pleased with that. At the end of the day I think to finish P7 is still a strong race for us and we’re taking home some good points.”
YUKI TSUNODA – 13th
“The first lap was really good, I started from the pitlane and managed to make up three places. We got stuck behind the Alfa Romeos, who were on a different compound, so we tried to make the undercut work with the Hards. I had to push from the very beginning on that tyre though and by the end of the race they were completely gone. Again, I have more mileage and race experience in a Formula 1 car so that’s really positive for me. I now just need to work on my Qualifying so that I can start the race further up the grid and have a better chance of scoring points.”
GUILLAUME DEZOTEUX – Head of Vehicle Performance
“It’s been a successful but difficult race today. We managed to bring home a seventh place with Pierre, which is a nice reward for the weekend. After the morning rain, the track had a big reset and the tyres grained quite badly, not only on our cars but on most of the field. In the race, we had to do a lot of tyre management to stay on the one-stop strategy and Pierre did a fantastic job at attacking and defending throughout. With regards to Yuki, it was obviously quite complicated starting from the pitlane, but he showed a good pace on the opening laps. However, after the stop, in free air, he couldn’t make as much ground as we would have hoped. We will analyse everything and see what the key learnings are for him going forward. Today we increased our gap to Aston Martin by three points, which is really positive. The fight in the midfield is very tight but we are up for the challenge and our competitors can count on us to make their lives difficult until the final race in Abu Dhabi.”