Formula 1 Emirates Grand Prix De France 2021 Preview

The seventh round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship sees the sport travel to France for the Paul Ricard Grand Prix.

The last time a race was held at this track in France, the Grand Prix itself was very uneventful, as Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Charles LeClerc and Max Verstappen started on the front two rows and finish in the order they qualified in.

As far as action went in the race, the most exciting part came on the final lap, where McLaren’s Lando Norris was suffering from hydraulic problems and was passed by Renault’s Daniel Riccardo, but, was forced off the track by the Australian, which allowed the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg of Renault to overtake the young Brit who moved down from seventh place to tenth, but, his future teammate Ricciardo was given a penalty that would demote the former Red Bull man to 11th, meaning Norris finished in 9th place.

The last two qualifying sessions that we have seen have both resulted in Ferrari’s Charles LeClerc getting pole position, as Ferrari tended to show signs of significant improvements in both of the street races at Azerbaijan and Monaco, although two red flags at the end of both Q3 sessions did potentially help the Monegasque driver on both occasions.

Following two race weekends in a row of pain for Mercedes, they are expected to be back to their best this weekend having somewhat struggled to deal with the street circuits this year, although much to their own surprise, Hamilton did manage to deliver a lap good enough to qualify in second place on the grid.

Hamilton and Bottas will be expected to be up there as front runners once again, having qualified as first and second place in both of Formula One’s visits to the Paul Ricard GP, although Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez might be able to intervene somewhat, as even with a significantly slower car last year, Red Bull’s Dutch driver was often able to split the two Merc, so it will likely be a close contest, but the German constructor’s straight-line speed should see them through.

Pole Position: Hamilton. 2. Bottas. Verstappen. 4. Perez

Last time out it was Perez who emerged as victorious in Baku, having driven a superb race prior to race leader Verstappen’s freak crash with just over two laps to go, due to a freak tyre failure that flung the Dutchman’s Red Bull car into the wall at incredibly high speeds along the start/finish straight. Perez had overcut Hamilton in the pit stops and kept the seven-time World Champion behind him for several laps in Baku, utilising the middle sector of the track to his advantage.

Following Verstappen’s crash, a red flag was brought out with every driver allowed to replace the hard tyres for softs for safety reasons at the restart. Hamilton actually managed to overtake Perez off the line, however, the Brit accidentally flicked a switch on his breaks which completely flipped the balance of his brake bias, meaning that he was unable to stop at the corner, gifting Perez the win, whilst Sebastien Vettel earned second place after an incredible drive for Aston Martin and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly completed what is a very popular podium amongst the F1 paddock.

This time around, we firmly expect to see Hamilton mount a strong comeback as stated above, due to his previous experiences at this track which has seen him won on both occasions that F1 has visited, as well as the pace that we saw when the Mercedes strolled to victory at Portimao earlier on in the season, whilst it is also expected that Verstappen could be a thorn in the German constructor’s side due to his blistering pace, whilst Perez also showed significant improvements last time out despite starting the race in Baku in seventh place.

At present there is just four points separating Verstappen and Hamilton in the standings, so the Brit will be desperate to get ahead of the Dutch driver before the sport does back-to-back weekends at the Red Bull Ring, where the home team have been particularly strong at in recent years.

Prediction: 1. Hamilton. 2. Verstappen. 3. Bottas. 4. Perez

As stated above, Ferrari’s resurgence has been a sight to behold in recent weeks, as both Sainz and LeClerc have impressed, as the Spaniard managed a second-place finish in Monaco and earned himself 8th in the standings at Baku. Meanwhile, the young Monegasque driver has managed two fourth-place finishes in his last three races, having had issues with his car that stopped him from starting on pole position at Monaco.

21-year-old British driver Norris is arguably the driver of the season alongside LeClerc, having managed a strong fightback in Baku with a fifth-place finish, meaning he is the only driver to have finished in the points at every Grand Prix so far this season.

The same statistic would’ve also applied to Gasly if he didn’t retire at the opening GP in Bahrain, which shows how good the former Red Bull man has been this campaign, as he comes into this race as the home favourite, although fellow Frenchman Esteban Ocon will be desperate to put a show on in front of his home crowd for French team Alpine (previously Renault), having retired from the last race in Azerbaijan, following some decent points finishes at Italy, Portugal, Spain and Monaco, accumulating all of his 12 points so far this season.