00:0016 previous races, who's going to win today, it's lights out and away we go, even start from the front, so Bottas gets away, Benford Perez, who's quickly caught by Carlos Sainz, Verstappen leading the men, down towards turn 1, from Hamilton, from Bottas, it just has to back up a bit, and Verstappen goes off the track, and that gives the lead to Lewis Hamilton, Hamilton, Verstappen, Verstappen, Verstappen, Verstappen, Verstappen, Sainz now looking to make him out.
00:25And they'll be furiously trying to recalculate on the Red Bull pit wall now, so Max stayed very straight, didn't he, and didn't really claim fully the way in, the line into the corner, had a moment, so he did make turn 1, I can see why the stewards agreed that, so he actually had to counter-steer into a slide, a back end, it just got in a little bit hot, and the back, the rear tyre wouldn't accept it,
00:54and yeah, we didn't make too many goals with the right, with the front wing, and it takes a, oh no, he's so did well to not go through the boner,
01:06Daniel Ricciardo, his team mate Lando Norris ahead of him, and Ricciardo on the long run, down to turn 1, well he says he's the last of the late breaker, and he was certainly later than his team mate on the breaks.
01:18And then another replay there, Fernando Alonso and Charlie Clare, and that is where the McLaren had to go through the bollards, not a good phase of the road for him, in, well, can I call it, second Red Bull, it is, it is in the championship, isn't it?
01:37We'll call it the other Red Bull, shall we? Meanwhile, in the other Haas, that isn't the key to Mazepin, this is Mick Schumacher, and the other Haas, getting a little bit close, so Mazepin is behind his team mate, good to Steinem up, we wanted to see too much of that going on, thank goodness, when you're driving round here, you can't see all of those stripes as much, because they definitely make my eyes go straight, it didn't actually make me feel too well, the high shots, where you see so many stripes, what can he tell us at race control, Paul?
02:06Lewis apparently reporting Gwena on the front, because Bottas has just been told by his engineer, that's what to expect, and Bottas is saying, it's not affecting me yet, so, maybe a bit more tyre wear on the machine is a concern, and that's something they suffer.
02:18The pedal getting very clean now, of Fernando, one side of that, of course, he replaced once upon a time, at Ferrari, two ex-Ferrari drivers now, there are scenes in place, but, I don't know what was happening then, with, Fernando's a long way behind here, and,
02:35in the world championship this year, it seems, and, uh, they're just about to be lined up, with Pierre Gasly in the middle of them, but, uh, two Ferraris, two McLaren, to say, with Gasly in the soup as well,
02:49that could be a race or battle, it's important for McLaren, to stay in there, and try to beat Ferrari.
02:54Uh, yes, very much so, McLaren, in the championship, 92 points going into this race, Ferrari on 94 points, we're just seeing a replay now, of Mousy Bottas locking up and taking to the escape road, it's cool, slow is Mercedes down, at turn three, pick what he wanted.
03:10So, keep pushing hard, try to avoid curves on the front left.
03:18So, the curves here, uh, most of, most of the corners, the curves are okay, but there are some rather nasty parts, as we see, uh, Charles McLaren, after his pit stop, making his way past Nikita Mazepin, and I can see 18th place, uh, but there are some curves on the outside of turn two.
03:34Hamilton stops, Verstappen, making his way around turn 12, very neat change there, from the Mercedes crew, Verstappen's now through turn 13, that's Sergio Perez, you can see, down the main straight, going into the lead of this French Grand Prix, we're on lap 20, Hamilton making his way to the end of the pit lane, Verstappen and Bottas now making their way down the main straight.
03:54Hamilton is looking for that wide line, so he can get his foot down, this is going to be a little tighter, the Mercedes were brilliant flight, Hamilton comes out, is he ahead of Max Verstappen? No, he is not! Max Verstappen pulls the undercut on Lewis Hamilton, Hamilton was told to give it everything, but for once, Habertime didn't give him enough time!
04:12They thought they got enough space there, enough gap!
04:15I agree, let's make sure we have the cut there for time.
04:17Are they all thinking then, of a two stop? Is this where Mercedes do it once again, and run medium, hard medium, as they did at Barcelona, to such great effect.
04:26Here goes Lando Norris, of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, we said he was struggling a bit, he was the first of the point scoring positions to come in a pit, and he's now starting to lose places.
04:36The overtake of Gasly, I think we saw Ferrari do a switch around of their two drivers.
04:41Yeah, we said that Sainz was ahead, but they're really starting to struggle, this was the close...
04:46He forced me off, what's this idiot doing? He even went off himself.
04:51Well, Norris, seemingly more patient, look at the state of his tyres out there as well, and this Martin, seems to be turning into a two stop race, that was originally going to be a one stop race.
05:04If that is the case, have Red Bull pulled an absolute masterstroke here, in keeping Perez out for so long?
05:10Because they might be a hard concern, let's watch the tyres go on as mediums for the end of the race, no problem, and that pit stop when he's back out.
05:16Because he had just got that two second gap at the 2.2 gap, so Mercedes will have to respond to that, I would have thought, to head off Perez.
05:25And so they have pulled the trigger first, Red Bull have given up track position as Perez goes through, and now Max has got some work to do, but 20 laps to go around this track that Perez has been munching up tyres.
05:40But it's well worth having a fresh set on, I would have thought.
05:43So, how did Mercedes respond, did they do the same with both cars, or did they have Red Bull, threw the dice, took a bit of a gamble, decided that this was not a one stop race for them.
05:53This was a two stop race in terms of Max Verstappen's potential and ability to win.
05:58So, on the medium tyres, a little fresher as Valtteri Bottas' hard compound tyre, on with DRS as well, he gains on the Mercedes, he gains on the Mercedes, he gains on the Mercedes, he can't get past the Mercedes, he made it go wide, Bottas goes wide.
06:11And this time Max Verstappen might get a decent exit out of the chicane and might not need DRS to get past Valtteri Bottas, it looked to have held Verstappen off just long enough to keep that second place.
06:23As through scene they go, wheel to wheel, side by side, and they come out of the corner with Verstappen in second place.
06:29Yeah, I think before the chequered flag, I think you kind of have to, because you need to make it right to the podium now.
06:35Yeah, do keep this thing, and out in front, that gap, Hamilton to Verstappen, 2.3 seconds, as here goes Perez now, on Bottas, to the chicane.
06:43We saw Bottas run wide there when he was passed by Max Verstappen, this time around he blocks that Mercedes exactly where he needed to.
06:50But how much longer can he hold off Sergio Perez, who's getting a good, great slipstream, pulls out now to the left-hand side of that Mercedes.
06:58By the time they hit the same corner, Sergio Perez is up into the podium places.
07:03Bottas knew that he couldn't hold that gap up for longer, he tried, he tried, he tried, he tried.
07:08He tried to beat, Verstappen gifted almost Hamilton the lead, they've got it back, and they've pre-taken that lead, yes they have.
07:15Max Verstappen goes past Lewis Hamilton, and for the second time in this race, has managed to get his red ball out of a bit of trouble.
07:24This time it was a strategy that asked him to do all the work, before it was a mistake down in turn one that forced him to do a lot more work.
07:31to do a lot more work, and with more than a bit laps to go, Verstappen retakes the lead of the French Grand Prix.
07:37Verstappen as he gets past Hamilton, into that chicane, and has one lap to survive, and to win a Grand Prix.
07:43Accidentally lovely, come on mate.
07:46Until a tyre failure cost him victory, this time around, no failures for Max Verstappen.
07:52Verstappen have never won three races in a row in the turbo hybrid era.
07:57Well that hat-trick is going to be completed here at Paul Ricard this afternoon, as Max Verstappen rounds the final corner.
08:03He sees his team cheering on the right-hand side, he sees the chequered flag, and he wins the French Grand Prix.
08:10Lewis Hamilton who had the long time.
08:13The race that Red Bull wanted, the start of the triple head of England did too.
08:17Absolutely, and I think the biggest thing for us, this is a race that normally doesn't create over-taking and coach racing.
08:23And it's the level of absolutely an over-weight between the two top teams but, I mean just what is going to be next?
08:30What is going to be next?
08:31Well, if we can beat them here, we'll beat them anywhere.
08:33That's what Christian Horner said about Red Bull and racing.
