French Grand Prix: F1 – live!

Lap 20/53: Wow! Hamilton emerges from the pit lane, but Verstappen is flying down the straight as he does so, and fractionally pips him to lead into turn one! Sergio Pérez now leads for Red Bull, his teammate Verstappen is second, with Hamilton third! That was a stinker for Mercedes and for Hamilton. In the pit lane, Toto Wolff looks ashed-faced as he watches his monitor. “OK Lewis … I’m not really sure what happened there, mate,” says one of the Mercedes team on the radio.

Lap 19/53: Verstappen does pit! It’s a good stop too, not sub-two seconds, but good … Hamilton still leads, he is yet to pit, but will be coming in soon.

Lap 18/53: Now Sainz and Gasly come in … Ricciardo takes them both while they stop, so that was a well-timed stop for McLaren. Verstappen expected to pit very soon.

Lap 17/53. Ricciardo pits in his McLaren. Ferrari’s Leclerc is down to 16th after his stop, and Ricciardo re-emerges from his stop in 17th. Will we get some rain?

Lap 16/53: Nearly three seconds’ lead for Hamilton now!

Lap 15/53: Leclerc of Ferrari pits for hard tyres. He won’t be the last … It looks like several teams are going to abandon their original one-stop strategy.

Lap 14/53 – live standings:

• 1 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes
• 2 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing +2.250
• 3 Valtteri BOTTAS Mercedes +5.148
• 4 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +8.528
• 5 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +24.041
• 6 Pierre GASLY AlphaTauri +24.984
• 7 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +26.533
• 8 Daniel RICCIARDO McLaren+27.307
• 9 Lando NORRIS McLaren +28.047
• 10 Sebastian VETTEL Aston Martin +30.164
• 11 Fernando ALONSO Alpine +31.547
• 12 Esteban OCON Alpine +32.528
• 13 Antonio GIOVINAZZI Alfa Romeo Racing +34.093
• 14 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +34.527
• 15 Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN Alfa Romeo Racing +35.736
• 16 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +36.994
• 17 George RUSSELL Williams +40.152
• 18 Nicholas LATIFI Williams +41.153
• 19 Nikita MAZEPIN Haas F1 Team +47.264
• 20 Mick SCHUMACHER Haas F1 Team +52.854

Lap 13/53: Hamilton stretches his lead in the Mercedes to 2.2secs. There is a touch of rain in the air but ‘not enough to affect grip,’ according to one of the drivers on radio.

Lap 11/53: Ricciardo finally gets past Alonso with a brilliant move … and Lando Norris, the other McLaren, swiftly takes him too! Ricciardo is eighth, Norris ninth, Alonso 10th. That was a class move by Ricciardo, under-braking his opponent and sneaking past on the inside of a left-hander.

Lap 10/53: The early signs are that early mistake by Verstappen from pole position is going to be very costly. Hamilton’s lead is up to 1.8secs. If it rains, which is looking possible, that should play into Hamilton’s hands too. The pre-race talk was of a few errors creeping in to Hamilton’s season but that was a howler by Verstappen with a clear track in front of him. Whether he simply lost a bit of grip, we will find out after the race.

Lap 8/53: Ricciardo and Alonso are having a lively battle for eighth place. Ricciardo in the McLaren is right on the Spaniard’s tail. Alonso isn’t entirely comfortably with his tyres, either.

Lap 7/53: Hamilton has been on the radio to tell his team that he is not sure if the medium tyres are going to hold up well enough for a one-stopper.

“That will be very concerning for the team at the pit wall,” observes Brundle on commentary.

Hamilton’s lead continues to hover between 1.4sec and 1.6sec.

Lap 6/53 – live standings:

• 1 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes
• 2 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing +1.328
• 3 Valtteri BOTTAS Mercedes +2.401
• 4 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +6.293
• 5 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +9.345
• 6 Pierre GASLY AlphaTauri +10.125
• 7 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +11.211
• 8 Fernando ALONSO Alpine +12.609
• 9 Daniel RICCIARDO McLaren +13.428
• 10 Lando NORRIS McLaren +15.108 – –
• 11 Sebastian VETTEL Aston Martin +16.184
• 12 Esteban OCON Alpine +17.122 – –
• 13 Antonio GIOVINAZZI Alfa Romeo Racing +17.914
• 14 Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN Alfa Romeo Racing +18.909
• 15 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +19.509
• 16 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +20.542
• 17 Nicholas LATIFI Williams +22.843
• 18 George RUSSELL Williams +23.523
• 19 Nikita MAZEPIN Haas F1 Team +25.077
• 20 Mick SCHUMACHER Haas F1 Team +29.646

Lap 5/53: Hamilton’s lead for Mercedes is hovering at around 1.5sec.

Lap 3/53: It’s hard to see what went wrong for Max Verstappen at the start. He got a good start and he led into turn one, but then veered off the track going through turn two, a right-hander. The door was wide open for Hamilton, who needed no second invitation to blast through and take the race lead. Hamilton now leads by 1.5sec but Verstappen has just set the fastest lap …

Lap 2/53: Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) are trying to make inroads further down the field. Vettel has made up a place, and is 11th having started 12. Sainz has stayed ahead of Gasly for now.

Verstappen goes off the track at turn two! Hamilton leads! a terrible start for Red Bull, and equally a superb start for Hamilton. Hamilton is building a handy early lead having started second on the grid.

The formation lap has begun. The top 10 on the grid are all on medium tyres. The on-track temperature is 37C as the sun pokes through the clearing clouds. They will probably be back …

This is the fifth pole position of Max Verstappen’s burgeoning career. On a related not, no one has ever won here from third on the grid. Turn one is going to be key.

The Sky presenter, Simon Lazenby, is pictured sitting on a beach swigging a glass of Provençal rosé. Jealous. I bet he finished the bottle.

Max Verstappen, of Red Bull, who leads the drivers’ standings and is on pole today, had a quick chat: “I’m confident we can do a good job … it will not be easy, but that makes it exciting, so that’s good.”

Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) starts from the pit lane after a qualifying shunt led to some parts being changed on the car overnight.

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
3. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
4. Sergio Pérez (Red Bull)
5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
6. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
7. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
8. Lando Norris (McLaren)
9. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
10. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
11. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
12. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
13. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
14. George Russell (Williams)
15. Mick Schumacher (Haas)
16. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
17. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
18. Nikita Mazepin (Haas)
19. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
20. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)

It seems Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), who is fourth on the grid, managed to go off track and flat-spot one of his tyres, but the car seems to be fine, so they will get it sorted before the start.

Christian Horner, the Red Bull boss, speaks to Sky: “This is a very strong track for Mercedes … it’s going to be an exciting race … the weather could play a key role … it’s looking pretty dark where the weather is coming from, so we’re going to have to keep a close eye on that.”

Hamilton has just put a message over team radio that he thinks there may be a problem with the way the team have tweaked the ‘brake magic’ toggle after the problem he experienced in Baku, when he accidentally pressed it on the restart. Nico Rosberg, on pundit duty for Sky Sports F1, says it’s ‘very worrying’ if there is a problem there.

The weather forecast is for scattered thunderstorms in the area today. A glance at the greying sky would suggest there is plenty of rain in the air near Marseille, too, although it’s dry at the moment. Hamilton also mentioned that he likes racing in the rain …

“The ageing sentimentalist in me, as well as the BLM supporter, wants Hammy to win,” writes William Hargreaves on Twitter. “I feel a championship this time around would mean even more than the others to him – tougher opposition.”

The consummate Martin Brundle on screen now, down on the grid. “It’s a pit walk, but not a pit talk, part of the [Covid-19] protocols,” he says.

“It’s a maximum of 42 people per team, including the drivers … 20 per car … that seems enough, but there’s an awful lot of work to do.”

A little more pre-race reading for you: take a look at Giles Richards’s interview with Pierre Gasly:

The AlphaTauri driver on mental health, being dropped by Red Bull and how the death of his friend Anthoine Hubert changed him

“The story of the weekend has to be Verstappen v Hamilton. I’ve been asked for a prediction,” yells Ted Kravitz down at trackside, over the noise of those revving engines … “I’ve got absolutely no idea what’s going to happen.”

Lewis Hamilton is asked if he’s happy to see fans in the stands: “It’s amazing to see people back … there’s a lot of energy all of a sudden now. When we didn’t have any fans, it was like a practice day almost … so it’s great to see some energy … they’re bringing the vibe this weekend … I’m excited and hope we can put on a good show today.

“It’s going to be tough to beat the Red Bulls – they are extremely quick – yesterday, it was over 3/10ths [advantage for Red Bull] on the straights … so we’ve got some work to do today.”

Is Lewis Hamilton starting to feel the pressure this season? His rival Max Verstappen is ahead in the drivers’ title standings – by a slender margin of four points – and also ahead of Hamilton on the grid for this afternoon’s French grand prix after the Dutchman claimed a stunning pole position on Saturday.

The British world champion insisted his error at the previous grand prix in Baku was nothing to do with pressure – and it would be just like him to silence a few doubters and produce a victory for Mercedes in the south of France today to re-exert control on proceedings.

There is no sign of the most exciting drivers’ title race in years being decisively settled either way for quite some time to come, but today should prove a significant milestone on the road to the title for the driver that eventually prevails. Pre-race buildup and more coming right up.