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Lewis Hamilton
won a race for Mercedes that was heavily influenced by the first lap, when
two of his rivals clashed and a safety car came out for five laps. A number
of drivers made a pit stop under the safety car due to car damage, notably
Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, who
both switched onto the soft tyre on lap two before making a second stop in
the closing stages of the race. Both finished in the points, having dropped
to the back, after capitalising on this improvised strategy to move up the
leader board as others stopped.
The strategy for Mercedes and Red Bull was to start on supersoft: Hamilton
(along with runner-up Max Verstappen) then switched onto soft for the final
stint. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen adopted an alternative one-stop strategy
that resulted in a strong podium finish.
Hamilton claimed a special tricolour ‘gorilla’ trophy for his victory,
designed by celebrated French sculptor Richard Orlinski to celebrate
Pirelli’s title sponsorship of the French Grand Prix.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“An uncertain weather forecast added to the strategic game today, with the
risk of rain meaning that teams wanted to avoid the risk of getting caught
out on the wrong type of tyre. As it was, the rain didn’t actually
materialise, but it was another potential factor to bear in mind. As
expected this was a one-stop race for most drivers, but there was a wide
variety of one stoppers, including some very long stints on the soft tyres.
We also saw Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas complete the race strongly
with two very different two-stoppers, with Ferrari and Mercedes having split
their strategies across each of their cars, reacting to the race
circumstances. This confirmed our expectation that all three compounds were
valid choices as part of an overall race strategy today, delivering a strong
performance throughout”.
STRATEGIES
Lewis Hamilton won the race using a one-stopper as expected, switching from
supersoft to soft on lap 33. This was the same tactic adopted by Max
Verstappen in second, although the Red Bull driver stopped much sooner.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in third went for a completely different option,
starting on ultrasoft and finishing on supersoft. This enabled the Finn to
make a crucial pass in the closing stages of the race that earned him a
podium. |
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