Motorsport News 24/06/21

Seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton says that he and his Mercedes team need to investigate how they got beaten in the French Grand Prix and come up with a fix. Hamilton was leading up until the penultimate lap of the race at Paul Ricard on Sunday after leapfrogging Max Verstappen, who had started on pole in his Red Bull but slithered wide at turn one. Verstappen pitted twice and was able to haul in the leader over the closing stages before moving ahead shortly before the end. Hamilton finished in second place ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. Hamilton, who now trails Verstappen by 12 points in the title chase, said: “Red Bull has obviously taken a step forward, and we need to work out where that is: whether that is in…

There was something perhaps more impressive in Max Verstappen’s win in the French Grand Prix than his other two victories in the 2021 campaign so far. The Red Bull driver went toe-to-toe with rival Lewis Hamilton and came out on top, this time on pure pace. There was no rain to factor in, and no lacklustre performance from either Mercedes or Red Bull. This was two teams performing at their optimum and it was Red Bull that laid down the marker. This is not a position Mercedes has been in for way more than five years. The pace of the Red Bull at Paul Ricard was strong and even the reigning World champion Hamilton pointed to the fact that he thought the rival team had stolen a march on the boys from…

It was quite simply “pay back” according to Red Bull boss Christian Horner. After Max Verstappen was robbed of victory last time out in Baku, he snatched the lead of the French Grand Prix on the penultimate lap to record his third win of the season. It had been a thrilling chase in the closing stages. Verstappen was faster on fresher tyres after gambling on a two-stop strategy, closing on arch rival Lewis Hamilton who had made just one stop and was nursing his much older rubber out front. The decision to pit Verstappen was justified when he outbraked his World championship opponent – to the cheer of the crowd – into the chicane on the Mistral straight on lap 52 of 53. On the team radio, Verstappen’s engineer Gianpiero Lambiase was…

FRENCH GRAND PRIX Laps: 53 Track: Paul Ricard 11 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) +69.337s; 12 George Russell (Williams-Mercedes) -1 lap; 13 Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri-Honda) -1 lap; 14 Esteban Ocon (Alpine-Renault) -1 lap; 15 Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo-Ferrari) -1 lap; 16 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) -1 lap; 17 Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo-Ferrari) -1 lap; 18 Nicholas Latifi (Williams-Mercedes) -1 lap; 19 Mick Schumacher (Haas-Ferrari) -1 lap; 20 Nikita Mazepin (Haas-Ferrari) -1 lap. Championship standings: 1 Verstappen 131; 2 Hamilton 119; 3 Sergio Perez 84; 4 Lando Norris 76; 5 Valtteri Bottas 59; 6 Charles Leclerc 52. Constructors: 1 Red Bull 215; 2 Mercedes 178; 3 McLaren 110; 4 Ferrari 94; 5 AlphaTauri 45; 6 Aston Martin 40.…

George Russell’s chances of driving for Mercedes in the future improved when one of his closest rivals for the seat committed his long-term future to another team. It was confirmed last week that Frenchman Esteban Ocon, who has close links to Mercedes, will stay at Alpine until 2024. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is a big fan of Ocon, but this agreement narrows his options for 2022. Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are out of contract at the end of this year and Wolff says he is evaluating whether Mercedes junior driver Russell could step up. Speaking about the possibility of Russell replacing Bottas next year, Wolff was non-committal: “I want to see Valtteri’s full potential this year and continue to observe George in driving for Williams and his handling of their situation.” Russell…

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc described the French GP as one of his “most difficult races” in his career so far. After two pole positions in the previous two races, Leclerc qualified seventh at Paul Ricard last weekend then slipped to a 16th place finish. His team-mate Carlos Sainz started fifth and was also hindered, with excessive tyre wear causing him to finish outside the points. “We are struggling massively,” said Leclerc. “It was a very bad race for us that we need to understand.” The Ferrari is able to extract tyre performance over one lap and has been strong in qualifying, but suffers from overheating tyres over a race distance. “It’s clear we have a limitation with the way we operate the tyres,” said Sainz. “In qualifying we are 0.3 seconds quicker than McLaren and 2s…