Lewis claimed his 79th victory in Formula One, his sixth of the 2019 season and second in France. Valtteri crossed the line in P2 to secure the team a 50th 1-2 finish in F1.
Lewis (187 points) leads the Drivers' Championship by 36 points from Valtteri (151 points). Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (338 points) lead Ferrari (198 points) by 140 points in the Constructors' Championship.
Nathan Divey, Number 1 Mechanic for Car 44, accepted the Constructors' trophy on behalf of the team.
Toto Wolff: In terms of car and driver performance today, that was one of our best of the season. Lewis drove a really good race, he was in complete control at the front and it was a truly faultless performance by him. Valtteri struggled a little in the second stint and he lost a chunk of time under the VSC towards the end, so Charles could get very close in the end. I am really pleased for the team this weekend, it's been a tough few weeks with a lot of long days, but we are relentless and will continue to push. To score another 1-2 finish is an incredible result and a credit to all the hard work and effort of this team. Now, we look to Austria, which is coming home for me. It's a power track there and we have been a bit marginal on cooling. It's meant to be very warm there, so we expect this to be a much harder fight.
Andrew Shovlin: It's been another very good weekend for the team and well done to Lewis on a very strong performance. We looked to have the better car here today but not by a big margin so both drivers were having to work very hard to build any kind of gap. The track was very hot and it made life quite difficult for the tyres. We were pushing hard in the first stint to try and build a gap to protect against the undercut. That more or less went to plan and by the stops we had managed to get both cars to the position where they were not really under any threat. We'd not run the hard tyre so far this weekend but we seemed to have a good balance on it and once it was up to temperature, it was working nicely. We had a bit of blistering on the front tyres of both cars but it was in an area that doesn't have to work hard in the corners so it didn't affect the grip. The least comfortable bit of the race was the last couple of laps with Valtteri when Charles managed to get right onto his gearbox. Valtteri was not close enough to the delta time on the restart and this is what allowed Charles to get close but we need to speak to him to understand what went wrong, we'd told him it would not be a long VSC but maybe we'd not communicated well enough just how brief it was going to be. We also dropped a point with Lewis, we'd not tried hard enough to go for the fastest lap thinking that Sebastian would easily have it, but we should have taken it more seriously. So, bits here and there to improve but well done to the whole team on a great result!
Scuderia Ferrari comes away from the French Grand Prix with a third place courtesy of Charles Leclerc, the Monegasque driver finishing right behind Valtteri Bottas and a fifth place from Sebastian Vettel, who thus finished two places higher than he started, following a difficult qualifying on Saturday. The German also set the fastest race lap, which is a new lap record.
When the five red lights went out, Charles went wheel to wheel with Max Verstappen, getting the better of the Dutchman before closing in on Hamilton and Bottas. Sebastian hung on to seventh place, keeping out of trouble which is often a factor in the middle of the pack.
In the opening laps, Leclerc managed to pull away from Verstappen, while a bit further back, Vettel thrilled the French crowd with a handful of spectacular passing moves. He stuck to the McLaren of Lando Norris, getting by on lap 5. At this point he set his sights on the other orange car, that of Carlos Sainz. The German closed up to him on lap 6 and passed him to go fifth on the following lap.
Both men started on the Medium tyres and Charles was the first to stop on lap 21, taking on the Hard tyres, rejoining fourth behind Vettel. The German came in a few laps later, the aim was for him to have fresher rubber at the end of the race so that he could profit from any drop off in performance from the Dutchman rival. Sebastian rejoined fifth on lap 26, just over six seconds behind Verstappen.
At this point, for both drivers the main task became tyre management, as there was a risk of degradation because of the high track temperature. Charles made a very good job of this so that, towards the end, he was able to close right up on Bottas, sitting on his tail for the final lap and tried to get alongside him a couple of times, although a pass was never really on the cards.
Sebastian also managed his tyres well, but he couldn't really close the gap to Verstappen. So on lap 51, the team brought him in for a set of Soft tyres and he went off in pursuit of the race fastest lap. The German took the chequered flag in fifth place having achieved that goal with a time of 1:32.740, which was also a new lap record. This was Charles' third F1 podium following on from those in Bahrain and Canada. The World Championship resumes in only a few days with next Sunday's Austrian GP at the Spielberg circuit.
Mattia Binotto Team Principal: It was rather a straightforward race, the end result being that Charles maintained his start position all the way to the end. Sebastian managed to shake off the McLarens as we had hoped and then ran a strong race, keeping a consistent pace, on a par with those ahead of him. When Verstappen pitted, we kept Seb out for a few more laps, given that the tyres were difficult to manage and were likely to suffer with significant degradation in the closing stages, as we saw on the Mercedes.
"Therefore every extra lap we stayed out would mean having fresher tyres towards the end and that could have been important in terms of giving us a chance to beat Max.
"In terms of performance, we are not yet where we want to be. We knew this circuit would be tough for us and to finish with Charles right behind Bottas is encouraging.
"The developments we have introduced since the Spanish GP have allowed us to close the gap and we have shown that we are on the right path. Some of these updates have proved to be very useful, others unfortunately less so, but we know that we have potential to improve significantly. At this point, we are confident, aware that there is still a lot to do, but that we have the ability to develop the car and to be competitive on all tracks."
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "It was a good drive by Max again and splitting the Ferraris was the maximum we could do today. With the heat, the tyres were always going to make for a bit of a marginal one stop race, so Max managed the situation very well to come home in P4, his fifth fourth position of the year. For Pierre, his first stint on the soft tyre was pretty good and he held P8 with relative ease, managing to go longer than anyone expected. The mechanics completed an incredibly fast pit stop which got him back out ahead of Daniel who was trying to get the undercut. Unfortunately, on the hard tyre Pierre just didn't have any pace and slipped down the order. Finishing P11 is frustrating as we are outside the points, so we will check everything on his car to ensure there are no hidden issues."
Renault F1 Team finished the Pirelli French Grand Prix with Daniel Ricciardo seventh and Nico Hulkenberg ninth, however, a post-race penalty for Daniel meant he exited the points, which promoted Nico to eighth.
Daniel had started from eighth on the grid but fell down to tenth on the first lap. An early stop on lap 16 to move from the Medium to the Hard tyre gave him ammunition to fight back up the field, taking the Toro Rossos and hunting down the McLarens. He closed on Lando Norris in the final stages of the race and made a move on the last lap, but a 10-second time penalty for overtaking both Norris and Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen outside the track limits pushed him down to eleventh position in the final classification.
Nico had a hard-fought race to finish ninth at the flag. Starting from thirteenth on Hard tyres, he made an excellent start and was locked in a battle with Raikkonen for tenth. A late stop for Mediums did not yield a chance to overtake the Finn and he came home ninth, which later became eighth after Daniel's penalty.
Forty years after Renault's first Formula 1 victory at the French Grand Prix, Renault F1 Team sits fifth in the Constructors' Championship.
Daniel started from eighth on Pirelli's used Medium (yellow) tyres, pitting on lap 16 for new Hard (white) tyres. Nico started on new Hard tyres, pitting on lap 34 for new Mediums.
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal: "The Renault-engined cars certainly tried to bring this Grand Prix to life. With P7 and P9, I think we finished in the best positions at the flag considering our starting positions and I am sure that's what the fans will take away. Daniel didn't have the best of starts but fought back thanks to a well thought out strategy and aggressive drive. Nico stayed on Kimi's gearbox throughout the race and was quicker, but not enough to make a move stick. The 10 second-penalty imposed to Daniel means that he dropped out of the points. It is disappointing as it was probably the most thrilling point of an otherwise uneventful race, with four great drivers fighting safely and fiercely in the last corners. With all the challenges to overtake cars on-track it is another demonstration that qualifying is the defining part of the weekend and our focus point for improvement."
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team driver Kevin Magnussen finished 17th in Sunday's French Grand Prix while teammate Romain Grosjean retired six laps shy of the checkered flag in today's eighth round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet.
Magnussen started 15th on a set of Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and picked up two positions over the first 10 laps of his initial run before dropping back to 16th. He pitted for a set of White hard tires on lap 16 and resumed at the back of the field. He was able to advance three positions before the checkered flag.
Grosjean began the race on hard tires from his 16th grid position, dropped two spots on the opening lap to 18th, but then worked his way up to 13th on lap 20 before pitting on lap 32 for a set of Yellow mediums. He resumed just in front of Magnussen in 17th, gaining one position before his Haas VF-19 was retired on its 45th lap, two down on the race leaders.
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team leaves France having dropped one position from eighth to ninth in the constructor's championship with 16 points, one behind eighth-place Toro Rosso and 16 ahead of 10th-place Williams.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton scored today's victory from the pole for his 79th career win, his sixth of the season and his second career and second in a row from the pole at Paul Ricard. His teammate Valtteri Bottas finished 18.056 seconds back in the runner-up position, giving Mercedes its fifth 1-2 finish of the season and 50th all-time. Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc took the final podium position.
Guenther Steiner: "Unfortunately this race weekend was the worst since we started the team. We need to try to find a way out of our issues. This is not where we want to be."
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: "Congratulations to our entire team, at the track and back home in Woking, plus of course the drivers. It's been our best weekend of the season and it was encouraging to see our car performing well from the first practice session until the end of the race. This gives us good momentum to keep pushing flat out as the pendulum of performance swings between teams from circuit to circuit.
"Carlos and Lando both did a great job managing the tyres over the distance. It was unfortunate that Lando lost positions on the final lap but he and the engineers did very well to battle through the second half of the race after a hydraulic issue arose affecting gear shifting, braking and steering."
Otmar Szafnauer: "Opportunities were few and far between today with a one-stop strategy being the only realistic approach for scoring points. We chose to split the strategies again and ultimately there was little to choose between the two with Sergio and Lance ending the race line astern. We came into this weekend aware that this circuit would present us with a tough challenge, but it's still disappointing to leave empty-handed. We take some encouragement from our competitive race pace, with both drivers happier with the car in race trim compared to yesterday. There's plenty to learn and analyse so that we can come back stronger in Austria next weekend."
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal: "It was very good to bring back the team into the points. All weekend, we have showed our fighting spirit and that we can compete with teams like Renault and McLaren. Kimi drove an excellent race, withstanding incredible pressure from Hulkenberg for most of the afternoon and making the most of his opportunities in the final laps to claim some important points. Antonio was unlucky, his race compromised by having to start on soft tyres. He showed good pace in the opening laps, but there was nothing he could do to remain in the points. He should take heart from a strong performance in qualifying."
Guillaume Dezoteux (Head of Vehicle Performance): "This is not the race we were hoping for here in Paul Ricard. We were immediately on the back foot after the first lap when Alex lost several positions and Daniil got overtaken by Russell. Daniil was able to recover some ground during his first stint and he successfully challenged Alex towards the end of the race for P14, which offered a good show. All in all, he had a solid race and managed his tyres well.
"Alex went wide in Turn 2 after the start and lost five positions. After having spent 14 laps in traffic, he was able to overtake Magnussen and recover some of the time lost to the train of cars he started with. Unfortunately, it was only enough to clear Giovinazzi after the pit stop. A mistake in Turn 7 meant he lost a place and had to fight again to get his position back. We were then too far away from the cars ahead and the blue flags compromised the last part of his race.
"We only managed to finish P14 and P15 today, which is disappointing after a decent Qualifying and the reasonable pace we had on Friday. We will analyse all of the data and prepare for the next race as best as possible to hopefully get a better result in Austria."
Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director): "This was a tough race for us, but as usual, Max drove a strong race to finish where he started, with the three cars ahead of him also finishing in grid order. Although all our cars took the chequered flag, our other three drivers had a more difficult afternoon. Our new Spec 3 PU performed as expected, but there is still room for improvement, and we will continue to work on that immediately to try for a better overall result next weekend in Austria."
Robert Kubica 18th finished and George Russell 19th in the French Grand Prix. Both drivers started on the medium Pirelli tyre, Robert 18th and George 20th on the grid. Robert ran a one-stop race, pitting on lap 24 for the hard Pirelli tyre. George ran a two-stop race, pitting on lap 25 for the hard Pirelli tyre, before front wing damage resulted in an unplanned second stop on lap 33.
Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer: We continued today in the way we have all season, maximising the package available to us. We executed our planned one-stop strategy well across both cars, and then managed the traffic as best we could to not minimise any damage to ourselves whilst not impeding the front runners. We had an issue on George's car after damage sustained early in the race when he hit a marker board running wide at T10. The damage unfortunately worsened to the point we needed to box him for a second time for a front wing change. Our pitstops were also good, once again reinforcing that we continue to work as racers even though we don't have the performance to compete with the rest of the field at present.
The Pirelli-sponsored French Grand Prix was held in track temperatures that peaked at 54 degrees centigrade: some of the hottest seen all year. In these extreme conditions, most drivers adopted the same one-stop medium-hard strategy, used by six out of the top seven drivers. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, fifth at the flag, converted to a two-stop strategy in order to take the extra point for fastest lap at the end with the soft tyre.
With the rates of wear and degradation expected in the warm conditions in the south of France, all but seven of the drivers started on the medium tyre. Nonetheless, a one-stopper was possible even if starting on the soft tyre, as Red Bull's Pierre Gasly showed.
The cars are going faster than ever: by halfway through the race, Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas already set a time equivalent to last year's fastest race lap: despite carrying more fuel and on much harder tyres (C2 compound in 2019, equivalent to last year's medium, as opposed to supersoft in 2018).
Some drivers tried an alternative strategy by doing a long opening stint on the hard tyre: especially Racing Point's Lance Stroll, who did 39 laps on the hard from the start, before switching to medium.
The extra point for fastest lap was claimed by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who made an extra stop with two laps to go to put on the soft. His fastest race lap was fractionally quicker than the fastest lap from race winner Lewis Hamilton, on used hard tyres.
Mario Isola: "The French Grand Prix was a demonstration of the impressive way that all the cars have gained speed compared to last year, in track temperatures that were among the hottest that we have raced in. Nonetheless, the majority of drivers stopped only once, with the medium-hard strategy that we predicted as fastest proving to be the most popular choice. The tyres stood up well to what were extremely challenging conditions, not just because of the high temperatures but also because of the extensive track evolution over the course of the weekend. Now we head straight to Spielberg in Austria for the first back-to-back race of the season."
