11/06/2019
NEWS STORY
Last year, as France returned to the schedule after an absence of ten years, the choices were soft, supersoft and ultrasoft, this year, for the fourth time thus far, the C4, C3 and C2 are on offer, the same combination seen in Australia, China and Azerbaijan.
Mercedes and Ferrari take 9 sets of the soft (C4), as do McLaren, Williams and Pierre Gasly, while Renault, Haas, Alfa Romeo and Toro Rosso take ten sets apiece. Racing Point and Max Verstappen take just 8 sets.
The Dutch driver takes the most sets of mediums (4), while Ricciardo, Grosjean and Kvyat take just one set.
Last year's race was won by Lewis Hamilton, with Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen joining him on the podium. All three were on a one-stop strategy, as were 15 of the 17 classified finishers.
Hamilton and Verstappen started the race on supersofts before switching to softs, while Raikkonen started on ultrasofts and then switched to supersofts.
The two drivers who made two stops were Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas, who collided at the start, necessitating the deployment of the safety car.
The German was subsequently handed a (ahem...) 5s time penalty.