Unchallenged Lewis Hamilton cruises to French GP victory
June 24, 2019 11:27 ISTLewis Hamilton's win looked easy as he finished 18 seconds ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and 19 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton's win looked easy as he finished 18 seconds ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and 19 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Sebastian Vettel had been given a five-second time penalty for an incident which happened with a little more than 20 laps to go and despite Vettel taking the checkered flag, that penalty gave Lewis Hamilton the win.
Niki Lauda, who died on May 20, had played a key role in bringing Hamilton to Mercedes in 2013 and the two had become close friends.
After five races and no wins for either Sebastian Vettel or Charles Leclerc, Ferrari's hopes of ending the dominance of Mercedes are already hanging by a thread.
Niki Lauda won the F1 drivers' championship in 1975 and 1977 with Ferrari and again in 1984 with McLaren.
Earlier, Harry Shaw, from Surrey, sent Hamilton, a five-time Formula One World Champion, a good luck message on Instagram from his hospital bed.
Hamilton's third win of the campaign let him take the championship lead by seven points over Bottas, who had entered the race with a one-point advantage.
Bottas, who leads Hamilton by one point in the standings, got back out with 15 minutes left of the session and clocked the third fastest time.
That was the fourth straight one-two finish for Mercedes, the best start to a season by a two-car team in Formula One history.
Hamilton compared Leclerc's situation to his own debut season at McLaren in 2007, when he was alongside then-reigning champion Fernando Alonso.
Lewis Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas completed their third straight double in Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton won at a canter despite Mercedes lagging behind the red Ferraris for most of the race in Bahrain.
Leclerc topped all three sections of qualifying, having already been quickest in two of the three practice sessions.
Mick, son of Formula One great Michael Schumacher, will make his F2 debut for the Prema team on Saturday and then drive in his first Formula One test for Ferrari on Tuesday.
Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas had vowed to come back stronger this year after flopping for much of 2018.
The 29-year-old Finn kept his emotions in check after what he described as the drive of his life to win the Australian GP on Sunday, his fourth F1 title and his first since 2017.
Mercedes was a hot favourite to win in Melbourne after dominating every practice session but surprisingly, it was Bottas who finished with a gap of 20 seconds.
Vettel has had more luck settling into rhythm on race day Down Under, and is aiming to equal two of Michael Schumacher's records on Sunday.
The five-time world champion edged Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas' leading time with seconds remaining to top qualifying Saturday in 1 minute, 20.486 seconds.
The five-time Formula One world champion topped the time sheets in both practice sessions Friday and followed up by recording the quickest lap time of 1 minute, 22.292 seconds.
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