The 2018 French Grand Prix is in the books and unsurprisingly, Lewis Hamilton won easily with a new engine in his Mercedes, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen managed not to crash for the second race in a row and claimed second, followed by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in the third and final podium position.
The race’s only significant drama came at the beginning when Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, starting in the number three spot on the grid and on softer tires, sped out faster than both pole-sitter Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, but was squeezed into a sandwich by both and ran into Bottas trying to escape the sandwich. That resulted in a penalty which essentially handed the race to Hamilton while Verstappen avoided the fracas by driving around it through the massive run-off area and was allowed to do so, thereby keeping his second spot with Raikkonen following him. ASN awards points for the straight-up top three finishing order, which means Hamilton now reclaims the overall lead from Vettel.
The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award was up for grabs this week as Verstappen once again decided not to crash and the contenders were Vettel for his crash, a slew of drivers for a first lap crash back in the pack behind Vettel and Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin, who did not crash but instead incurred a five-second penalty for driving too slow behind the safety car – that gets the rookie Sirotkin his first-ever point in this category – but Verstappen maintains his commanding overall lead.
The Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award goes to McLaren’s Fernando Alonso who is entering his pouty stage a bit early into the season as he complained late in the race that his car had “no brakes, no tires and [we] are out of the points” so what was the point? Why – to become the champion of the Raikkonen category, Fernando, of course! Alonso surpasses Hamilton for the category lead.
The Bernie Ecclestone Doofus Moment Award is a no-brainer and goes to Verstappen for his post-race comments complaining about the media not asking Vettel about “changing his approach” after crashing into Bottas when they were constantly asking him similar questions after he crashed in every one of the first seven races of the season. Hamilton and McLaren continue to share the category lead.
2018 ASN Formula One Driver Rankings [after French Grand Prix]
1] Lewis Hamilton – 13 points
2] Sebastian Vettel – 11
3] Daniel Ricciardo – six
4] Kimi Raikkonen/Max Verstappen – four
6] Valtteri Bottas/Sergio Perez – three
8] Pierre Gasly/Nico Hulkenberg – two
2018 Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award – after French Grand Prix
1] Verstappen – 4-1/3 points
2] Romain Grosjean – two
3] Sergey Sirotkin – one
4] Red Bull/Ricciardo – 1/3
2018 Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award – after French Grand Prix
1] Fernando Alonso – 2.5 points
2] Hamilton – two
3] Verstappen – 1.5
4] Bottas/Vettel – one
2018 Bernie Ecclestone Doofus Moment Award – after French Grand Prix
1] Hamilton/McLaren – 1.5 points
3] Canadian Grand Prix officials/Ferrari pit [Raikkonen]/Monaco Grand Prix officials/Verstappen – one
7] Azerbaijan Grand Prix officials/Spanish Grand Prix officials – .5