2021 French Grand Prix: Verstappen Wins at Le Castellet

The 2021 French Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 20 June 2021 at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France. It was the seventh round of the world championship, and France's 61st appearance on the calendar. Max Verstappen took the win for Red Bull Racing, passing Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap.

Why was the French Grand Prix moved to 20 June?

The race was first set for 27 June, but organisers moved it to 20 June once the Canadian Grand Prix had been cancelled and the Turkish Grand Prix postponed. The change made France the opener of a run of three races on successive weekends, followed by two rounds in Spielberg, Austria.

The 2020 edition had been cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so this was a welcome return to the calendar. Critics questioned the workload of a fourth block of three back-to-back races, particularly its effect on the mental health of the people who travel with the championship. Two people connected with the event tested positive for COVID-19 during race week.

Attendance was capped at 15,000 spectators a day. The large venue let organisers keep people apart more easily than at most French events during the pandemic, and it was the seventeenth Grand Prix held at Le Castellet. The 1971 French Grand Prix had been the first run there.

Verstappen converted pole into victory after a bold second pit stop, while Mercedes were left with worn tyres.

What was the circuit like?

Circuit Paul Ricard measures 5.842 km (3.630 mi) and has fifteen corners. It had been resurfaced recently, and several corners had been reprofiled since the 2019 race, with changes also made to the pit lane entrance. Two drag reduction system zones were in use, one on the start-finish straight and one on the Mistral Straight.

The layout pairs a fast middle sector with a twisting final sector, so tyres can wear quickly here, especially in hot weather. The track is lined with large paved run-off areas.

What changed in the tyre rules before the race?

Pirelli, the sole Formula One tyre supplier, brought its middle three compounds, the C2 hard, C3 medium and C4 soft. The smooth tarmac was not expected to wear the tyres excessively, so the choice looked safe on paper.

The timing was awkward. Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen had suffered high-speed tyre failures at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix two weeks earlier, and questions followed about the safety of the tyres. Pirelli concluded that neither its tyres nor debris on the track were to blame, pointing instead to the running condition of the tyre.

The FIA introduced new checks to stop teams running tyres below the prescribed minimum pressure, which had been raised by fourteen kilopascals (2 psi). Scrutineers also began a new test of how flexible the rear wings were.

How did the teams prepare for the weekend?

Ten constructors entered two drivers each, with no changes to the season entry list for the race itself. Roy Nissany drove the Williams in the first free practice session in place of George Russell. It was also the first Grand Prix for Jost Capito as the team principal of Williams.

Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri received new Honda engines, and Red Bull arrived with a shortage of spare parts after Verstappen's crash in Baku. McLaren and Ferrari both made aerodynamic changes ahead of the event.

Aston Martin displayed the logos of Racing Pride, a long-term partner, to mark Pride month. Tobacco branding from Philip Morris, which had appeared on Ferrari cars earlier in the season, was removed from this race for the remaining European rounds. McLaren carried the name of their late shareholder Mansour Ojjeh on the side of the cars as a tribute.

Was kerb damage a problem in practice?

Valtteri Bottas set the early pace in the first free practice session, ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen. In the second session Verstappen went fastest by 0.008 seconds from Bottas, and in the third he was more than seven-tenths of a second quicker than the Mercedes driver.

Several drivers hit the kerbs and walls. Sebastian Vettel made contact with a wall in the first session, and Mick Schumacher tagged a wall as well. Bottas and Verstappen both damaged front wings on kerbs, and each team complained about where the kerbs were placed. Red Bull's Jonathan Wheatley and Mercedes' Ron Meadows estimated that a kerb strike could cost as much as 100,000 pounds sterling in damage.

The kerbs were the same as in 2019, but the new smoother tarmac let teams run stiffer suspension and carry more speed through corners. Here the kerbs were laid across the direction of travel, which made impacts harder. From the third session onwards, lap times were deleted if a driver left the track at the exit of the sixth corner.

Who took pole position?

Verstappen took pole position in the final segment of qualifying with a time of 89.990 seconds. It was the only lap under ninety seconds, at an average of 233.7 km/h (145.2 mph), and it was the fifth pole of his career.It was also the first pole for Red Bull at the French Grand Prix and his first since the opening round in Bahrain.

Hamilton qualified second and said the result disproved claims that a chassis swap with Bottas had hurt his form. Bottas and Sergio Perez were third and fourth, and Toto Wolff felt that his team's cars were not the fastest on the day. The Mercedes cars were slower in a straight line than the Red Bulls, and the higher rake of the Red Bull allowed a smaller rear wing.

Carlos Sainz Jr qualified fifth and Charles Leclerc seventh, with both Ferrari drivers struggling to bring their front tyres up to a usable temperature. Pierre Gasly was sixth for AlphaTauri, and Fernando Alonso ninth, sandwiched between the McLarens of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo.

How did the earlier segments of qualifying go?

Yuki Tsunoda hit a barrier in the first part of qualifying, and then Schumacher crashed with half a minute left on the clock, ending the session early. That crash gave Schumacher fifteenth place, the best qualifying result of his career at that point. Lance Stroll was unable to set a representative time after a lap was deleted for leaving the track at the sixth corner.

Nicholas Latifi qualified sixteenth, just 0.002 seconds slower than his Williams teammate Russell in fifteenth. Nikita Mazepin was eighteenth after failing to keep pace with Schumacher. Tsunoda's car had replacement parts fitted after qualifying, so he began from the pit lane.

How did the race start?

The race began at 15:00 local time on Sunday 20 June and ran for 53 laps, a distance of 309.690 km (192.432 mi). Most of the field started on medium tyres, with six choosing the hard compound. Track surface temperatures were between 33 and 38 C (91 and 100 F), a little cooler than during practice and qualifying.

Verstappen made an error on the opening lap and lost the lead to Hamilton. He said he had lost the rear of the car and had trouble regaining control in the strong tailwind. Lando Norris lost places at the start and briefly ran wide at the tenth corner, while Latifi, Raikkonen, Stroll and Tsunoda passed Russell and Schumacher early on.

What happened in the first round of pit stops?

Charles Leclerc was the first driver to pit, on the fourteenth lap. Tsunoda and Schumacher followed a lap later, and Daniel Ricciardo stopped on the sixteenth lap to get ahead of Gasly. Bottas came in on the seventeenth lap because his tyres had developed a flat spot, and Red Bull called Verstappen in on the eighteenth lap with Hamilton following on the nineteenth lap.

Verstappen had preserved his tyres while running behind Hamilton, so he could make up time immediately before his stop. Once he emerged from the pit lane on fresh rubber, he used the extra grip to overturn a three-second deficit. Hamilton left the pits behind him, and Verstappen said the new tyres performed particularly well on the first lap after the stop.

Perez was not as quick as Verstappen or the Mercedes drivers in the gusty conditions, but he managed his tyre wear well and stayed in touch with the leaders. Norris pitted for his only stop on the twenty-fourth lap and emerged in fourteenth, but with a useful tyre advantage over the cars around him.

How did Red Bull's second stop decide the race?

Verstappen made a second stop for new tyres on the thirty-second lap, while Hamilton continued on his first set. Verstappen emerged eighteen seconds behind Hamilton, but the fresh tyres gave him a significant speed advantage. Mercedes had used a comparable plan at the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix, though the circumstances there had favoured the team making the second stop.

Verstappen was unsure whether the extra stop was the right call. A problem with his radio meant he could not have lodged a protest in any case. Perez let his teammate through on the thirty-fifth lap to pursue the Mercedes pair, and his presence then posed a problem for Hamilton and Bottas, because another stop would mean rejoining behind him.

How did the closing laps unfold?

Verstappen reached Bottas by the forty-fourth lap and passed him after the Mercedes driver made a mistake. Bottas was unhappy with his team's decision to make only one stop for new tyres, and the disagreement came while his future at Mercedes was uncertain. Bottas said his frustration with the strategy was not related to that.

With five laps left Verstappen began to close rapidly on Hamilton, whose tyres had worn badly. He went past on the penultimate lap. Hamilton preferred not to move onto the dirty part of the track to defend, so Verstappen used the drag reduction system to pull clear on the straight. Nico Rosberg said he was surprised Hamilton had not done more to keep him behind.

What happened to the rest of the field?

Perez finished third after passing Bottas on the forty-ninth lap. Bottas dropped to fourth, and Norris, who had made numerous overtakes, took fifth, 50 seconds behind Bottas. Norris also recorded the highest speed of the race on the speed trap, 349 km/h (217 mph). Ricciardo followed him home in sixth, and Gasly took seventh, staying within a second of Ricciardo.

Alonso passed both Ferrari drivers after his pit stop to finish eighth. Sebastian Vettel finished ninth after being blown off the track by strong winds on the twenty-eighth lap, and Stroll gained nine positions to claim the final point in tenth. Russell was twelfth, with Ocon fourteenth and Giovinazzi fifteenth, after his pit stop strategy dropped him behind Russell.

Why did the Ferrari drivers fail to score?

Both Ferrari drivers finished outside the points. Their cars had severe tyre wear compared with rivals, and Sainz, who finished eleventh, said the team had to work out why the car was harder on its front tyres. Leclerc had to pit again on the thirty-eighth lap, which dropped him to sixteenth.

Team principal Mattia Binotto said that fixing the problem would require fundamental changes that the regulations would not allow. The team later concluded that its setups had caused understeer that wore the tyres, a conclusion the team reached after this race. It was the first time Ferrari had failed to score in 2021.

Who finished where?

What did the result mean for the championships?

Verstappen extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship, and Red Bull extended its lead in the Constructors' Championship. Verstappen's thirteenth Grand Prix victory also gave Red Bull its first run of three consecutive Grand Prix wins since 2013.

Hamilton said his tyres were badly worn by the end, and he credited Red Bull with a good strategy. Team principal Christian Horner called the result a little payback for Barcelona, where Mercedes had used a similar plan to win earlier in the year. Wolff believed Mercedes had been the faster car, but not the team with the better strategy.

Why did the French Grand Prix matter?

Verstappen then won the next two rounds in Spielberg, making him the first driver to take three world championship rounds on consecutive weekends. The French race was the third of ten races won by the eventual 2021 champion.

Hamilton's podium was his 170th at a world championship Grand Prix. The trophies were gorilla statuettes designed by sculptor Richard Orlinski, and the top three were interviewed by Martin Brundle before collecting them.

Were there any penalties or disputes?

Perez was investigated for leaving the track during his pass on Bottas. The stewards ruled he had not gained an advantage, so no penalty followed. Mercedes could have made an extra stop to fit fresh tyres to Bottas and chase the bonus point for fastest lap, but chose not to in case Perez received a time penalty.

Norris and Gasly went off track together on the twenty-eighth lap after Gasly defended, and Norris was frustrated by the move. Gasly said he had raced Norris fairly, and he noted that the wind and high tyre wear made his car difficult to drive.