Paul Ricard fina🎐lly delivered a great F1 race with 𝐆a thrilling and intriguing French Grand Prix that was eventually won by Max Verstappen following the Red Bull driver’s last-gasp overtake on title rival Lewis Hamilton.

Down t🐓he road from the victory fight, there were contrasting fortunes for F1’s midfield runners. But the consolation for those enduring a difficult day is that there are immediate back-to-back races to follow in Austria.

H🀅ere are our winners and losers from the 2021 French GP…

Winners

Max Verstappen and Red Bull

Verstappen twice came from behind to overcome Hamilton’s Mercedes ဣafter initially giꦚfting his main rival the lead with a rare error at the first corner.

Red Bull aced its stratꦆegy as Verstappen was able to undercut Ham🔯ilton to regain first after the opening stint, before a gamble to switch onto a two-stopper proved the right call.

Verstappen calmly evaporated an 18-second deficit to Hamilton on fresher medium tyres and swept past the seven-time world champion on the penultimate lap to seal a momentous w꧅in that hands him a 12-point lead in the championship after seven races.

It was another great race for Sergio Perez, who followed up his win last time out in Baku with a strong drive to the podium, having made a one-stop strategy work to pass thꦜe struggling Valtteri Bottas late on.

McLaren

A fantastic day at the office for the Woking outfit, which sealed a solid points haul with Lando Norris taking f🐈ifth ahead of teammate Daniel Ricc𝓀iardo.

McLaren’s race-day showing was superior to its midfield rivals as Norris and Ricciardo b𒁃attled past the fading Ferraris to wrestle back third place in the constructors’ championship.

It was arguably Ricciardo’s strongest showing yet for his new team as appears more comfortable than ever in the MCL35M heading into a crucial run of races. Some𝓀 encouraging early signs that the old Ricciardo is bac🍨k.

Fernando Alonso

After a slow start to his F1 comeback, Fernando Alonso has demonstrated his world champion qualities over the past two𓆉 race weekends in Baku and France.

A second straight Q3 appearance p🍒ut him on course for points and he converted a strong eighth-place finish despite Alpine’s race-day pace struggles.

Alonso finished just 1.7 seconds behind Ricciardo’s McLaren and AlphaಞTauri driver Pierre Gasly and can come away from Paul Ricard feeling he extracte🧸d the maximum from his side of the garage this weekend.

Aston Martin

Sebastian Vettel꧒ pulled off some impressive moves on his way to ninth place as he continued his good run of recent form in France on what marked a solid day for Aston Martin.

Excellent tyre management during a mammoth first stint helped the four-time world champion to his third strai🌸ght points finish.

Th🤪e team was left disappointed after qualifying as Vettel was eliminated in Q2, while a messy Q1 disrupted by two red flags left Lance Stroll facing a back-of-the-ไgrid start.

Stroll recovered str🐼ongly in the race to take 10th at the chequered flag, capping off a double-points haul that helped the tꦑeam close up to within five points of fifth-placed AlphaTauri.

George Russell

George Russell described the French GP as his best drive yet for Williams as h𓆏e finished 💃12th on merit.

Despite losing ground on the opening lap as💙 he was shuffled down from his P14 starting spot, Russell took advantage of an early pit stop to climb ba🐲ck up to 12th by the end of the race.

P12 was earned on a day there were no retirements as Russel🍰l and Williams’ pace made the difference, enabling the Briton to overtake the likes of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Losers

Mercedes

Mercedes were left ꦓrueing a strategic blunder as they watched victory slip♓ through their fingers in France.

First, a decision to pit Hamilton a ♎lap too late proved costly as Verstappen successfully undercut the seven-time world champion, before it mistakenly 🍸believed a one-stop strategy to be the best way to win the race.

Red Bull came out trumps thanks to its bold gamble to switch onto a two-stopp🦩𒅌er, leaving the Mercedes team scratching its head and Bottas unhappy as it conceded more curtail points to Red Bull in the title race.

Ferrari

A trul⛄y woeful day for the Scuderia as it came away from the French GP with no points to its name following a difficult race.

Ferrari started from fifth and seventh with Carlos S😼ainz and Charles Leclerc and but both drivers dramatically faded in the race as they struggled with tyre degradation.

Sainz fell to 11th while Leclerc’s slump was even more dramatic as he plummeted down to P16 on weekend to forget for Ferrari, who surren🌌dered third place in the championship to McLaren.

Yuki Tsunoda

Follo🎉wing an impressive performance in Baku, Yuki Tsunoda came back down to earth with a bang as he suffered his third qualifying crash in seven races at Paul Ricard.

That left him on the back ꦰfoot for the race. While his ꦛrecovery drive from the pit lane to P13 was decent enough, he missed a clear opportunity to score points with teammate Pierre Gasly finishing seventh.

AlphaTauri needs Tsunoda to b🅰e regularly joining Gasly in the top 10 if it is going to meet its targets in the constructors’ world championship this season. Granted he is a rookie, but his mistakes are becoming a little too frequent.

Esteban Ocon

Home hero Esteban Ocon had high hopes of j𝄹oining teammate Alonso in the points, but his race quickly went downhill as he failed to celebrate signing a new three-year deal with Alpineꦦ in style.

Starting on the hards didn’t pay off as Ocon struggl𒀰ed with tyre management, which in turn meant he ran on mediums for longer🔯 than planned.

Lacking pace on both compounds, Ocon tumbled down to a lowly 14th on a weekend Alonso comprehensively outperformed hiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚm.

Mick Schumacher

Mick Schumacher missed the chance to score his best result to date in F1 following his impressive qualifying effor🐻ﷺts.

The German’s hard work to land 15th on the grid was undone thanks to a poor opening lap that saw him fall 💛to 19th. Schumacher was then barged off the road as Haas teammate Nikita Mazepin found a way past.

Schumacher fought baℱck to reclaim the position from Mazepin but will be left disap🃏pointed by his uninspiring showing in the race.