What the teams said – the day of the race in France

Mercedes

Hamilton led from the start in a composite display, losing his head only briefly in the refueling period. His third win of the season brought him back to the top of the drivers standings. Bottas was tagged by Vettel at the first corner, suffering damage to the floor and a puncture at the back. He had to fight back and was thwarted only in his sixth place attempt by the late VSC and the yellow flags. Seventh still marks a good recovery.

Lewis Hamilton, 1st

"When you are constructive and you criticize yourself, as you approach a challenge with new methods and renewed determination, it's a good feeling to get the result, but it's also disappointing for the team as we had the opportunity to 2, which is always amazing when you reach your ultimate goal as a team.I was very comfortable with the scales this afternoon .Max had a decent pace, but I could keep the gap at about five seconds. The cool engine brought us back online with everyone who took a new UP in Canada and everyone in the team should feel happy today for the good work they 've done, but there is a long way to go and we will continue to approach the rest of the season as we approached it today. ### 39; hui. "

Valtteri Bottas, 7th

"It was a shame because we had a solid car today as shown by Lewis' result, but my race was lost in the first corner, I was out and about. I knew that keeping this line would put me inside Turn, then I had a blow from behind, a puncture and I damaged my floor, after that it was difficult because the The car was very damaged and I could feel the lack of aft I think it was not my day today, in a way, it sums up my season, but it There are good points – we were strong in the team, although unfortunately we could not get a perfect score, but I managed the best lap of the race despite the fact that I could not do it. state of the car, I'll keep my head down, work hard and hope that luck will turn out at a certain time. "

James Allison, Technical Director

"It's hard to be unhappy on a day when you won the race in a good way, recovering the lead of the drivers' championship and extending our advantage in the constructors." Lewis led a splendid race and mastered everything; It's hard not to be very sorry for Valtteri, who also had a great weekend and had his race compromised at Turn One, with no fault of his own. All weekend is good and we can travel to Austria with the optimism that we can continue to do good work in the next races. "

Toto Wolff, Director of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

"It was a perfect way for Lewis to start the triple header and bounce back from Canada's disappointment, every time he has a tough weekend, he has that fantastic ability to bounce back, and we're We have seen here at Paul Ricard. For Valtteri, the day was much more difficult: Sebastian clearly misjudged his braking for the first corner and was deceived, which cost him and Valtteri dearly. When the car stopped, we saw that the surface of the ground around the tire was very damaged and that Valtteri described the balance of the car as "shocking", taking this into account, c & # 39; was also a combat performance. However, we let see the positive side of our performance this weekend.The car was fast and with our improvements, we had the impression of taking a step forward, thanks to all members of the team who have worked so hard to get them on the track but we can not afford to make any assumptions about what this means for the next races – it's still a three-way fight and we'll have to be at our best if we want to repeat this performance. "

Red Bull

Miraculously considering their starting positions, the two Red Bulls kept the course at the first corner. Verstappen was catapulted into second position, a position that he only abandoned during refueling. Ricciardo suffered damage as a result of debris on the circuit. Lacking support, he was unable to defend himself against Raikkonen in the last moments, but he returned to fourth place in what was still a good day for the team.

Daniel Ricciardo, 4th

"I'm obviously a little disappointed and it's a pity to lose on the podium today, we were definitely faster than fourth place and it could have been a good fight with Max, I do not know yet." why but the front wing was damaged during the race.Before the refueling, we had a very good pace on the supersofts, I do not know how much Lewis was so fast, but it seemed we were moving away from Kimi and grabbed Max Then, about two laps before I stopped I had damage to the left side of the front wing; I felt an understeer immediately and I do not know if it was a failure or if i hit debris, but the mechanics could see it during the stop.

"After the stop, the same part to the right of the front wing is also broken, because of the damage we had less support, the car understeer, and the tires were suffering, Kimi was still going to catch us at the end of the race.We were a wounded car, it was a shame because we looked pretty strong today, the positive is that we had decent points, but we were definitely faster than the fourth and just unlucky this afternoon. "

Max Verstappen, 2nd

"Finishing second here at Paul Ricard is better than we expected as the weekend approached.As soon as we arrived at the age of two, I was relieved to I did not have any contact and it was a fairly clear layout, so from there it was just running my own race, which was pretty simple, I could see Lewis manage the pace but We were still not far away without pushing the car too much, I think we had the strategy on the spot, the soft tires seemed a bit more robust and allowed me to find a good one. The pace makes the last laps more comfortable After two clean races and good results in a row, it is important to continue this momentum.

"We had a third and now a second then with the good track I am looking forward to the win. I missed a good chance in Monaco but there are still some good opportunities to come, but to score good points for the team on the circuits What is not ideal for us, it is a big positive point: it was nice to run here in France, to hear the l & # 39; 39 national anthem and see so many spectators in the stands do like a traditional European grand prix.

Christian Horner, Team Principal

"In the end, an entertaining grand prize and we are happy to come back from our first race to Paul Ricard with lots of points for the team and a podium." Max has come a long way to complete a very good weekend finishing in second place and coming back to the podium after a third place finish in Canada From the start, he managed to avoid the collision between Sebastian and Valtteri at the first corner and to settle at the Second place with a good clean race from there was a shame for Daniel whose car was hit in the middle of the race when the first two elements of his flap dissolved, probably hitting debris.

"A very frustrating race for him because he has also done well for a place on the podium. In summary, the Grand Prix de France represents a good start to the triple-header and we go directly to our home race in Austria where we hope to be as competitive there and take the fight for leaders at the Red Bull Ring. "

McLaren

Alonso had a day to forget – he had to fight his way through cars and debris at the start, and immediately stung, falling to the back of the pitch. He was then taken over by Vettel at the restart of the safety car, suffering damage. To aggravate his bad afternoon, a late stop for the fresh rubber led to a tire problem and his third DNF in a row. Vandoorne avoided first-round incidents to run solidly into the midfield, but a late refueling stop cost him spots and he came home out of the points.

Fernando Alonso, DNF

"I started this race on back-foot, losing positions at the start because I was avoiding a lot of accidents around me.Too many cars in front of me took a shortcut, but I stayed on track and I finished last.

"I was still late after the Safety Car period, I had a problem with overheated brakes, and then I used a set of tires while I was driving in traffic for almost all the time. the race. Then, in the end, I had to retire with a suspension problem.

"In five days we will have another opportunity to forget today and improve our game. I really hope that this weekend will be punctual and that we will show a better shape to Spielberg and, in particular, at Silverstone.

"I know there are new things to come over the next few months, and I'm still very optimistic despite the fact that we're not competitive this weekend."

Stoffel Vandoorne, 12th

"For us to finish in the points would have needed a little luck.We knew that, if no other car was in trouble, the points would be hard for us – and so it s. turned out to be.

"Our pace today was significantly better than it was in qualifying yesterday, so once we can improve our pace on Saturday, it should help us move up the pace. order in the races.

"I had a decent race, I caught up with Ericsson and Fernando at the end, so it was a positive afternoon for me, but we did not get any points for him." team, which is regrettable.

"There is nothing particularly bad with the balance of our car, it's just that our pace is not strong enough."

Eric Boullier, Race Director

"It is difficult to look for positive results after such a disappointing weekend, but it is encouraging to see that our pace has been better today than in qualifying, and we need to see how we can translate that to Saturdays after -midi, because it will give us more chance to fight for a Sunday.

"Still, Stoffel and Fernando have both unleashed today, they were impeccable and ruthless, always delivering the maximum potential of the car.It's just frustrating when this effort is not rewarded." with points, but we know that we still need to develop the car to make it a more consistent proposition on Sunday.

"Finally, I want to pay tribute to the fantastic crowd that we have witnessed today.It's great to see the Grand Prix de France on the F1 calendar, and I felt very proud when I have seen so many enthusiastic spectators enjoy the show throughout the weekend, and hope that the 2019 event builds on this year's success. "

Force India

The Ocon home race did not last long – he was first hit by Grosjean, having sustained damage to his car, and then collided with Gasly, which ended in his race. Perez chose to start on soft tires and make a long first stint. He was in the points until he began to suffer in straight lines, having gone through a number of cars before shooting in the pits and retiring with a problem. suspected power unit.

Sergio Perez, DNF

"It 's disappointing to finish the race like this." We had a sudden drop in water pressure and had to pull out the car – it's a shame because we had the chance to get in the car. opportunity to score a good number of points and we leave empty handed instead.I had a good start and I stayed away from incidents.I would have been eighth but Grosjean has cut a few bends and exceeded me.We gave everything to try to get a result, but luck was not on our side this weekend.We have some improvements coming for the Austria and I hope that they will make us more competitive for the next races. "

Esteban Ocon, DNF

"A very disappointing day, I had a good start and rubbed Romain [Grosjean] go down the pit straight before he gets in touch with me. I was on the edge of the track but he moved and hit me, which caused a lot of damage on the side of my car and on the ground. After that, Pierre [Gasly] I lost it to braking in the third corner and I hit it from behind, which completely ended my race. I feel very sad right now because I have been looking forward to running in front of my crowd for so long and it has only lasted three turns. The fans here have been amazing all weekend, so I have to say a big thank you for all the positive energy that they have given me. "

Otmar Szafnauer, Director of Operations

"It's not really our weekend and seeing both cars pull out of the race concludes a disappointing Grand Prix de France." Esteban's race was very short and he was simply the innocent victim of mistakes the other drivers, Grosjean's shot in the pit straight was totally useless and unexpected, and caused significant damage to the floor of the car.Then being hit by Gasly caused even more damage and put Esteban Sergio escaped most of the carnage of departure and was fighting for points until there was a rapid drop in water pressure, which ended We are still studying the root cause of this problem. "

Renault

Sainz was third at the start and, although he was drafted by faster cars, he seemed to be in sixth position until he suffered a loss of power in the last minutes. . He was immediately overtaken by Magnussen and Bottas, but the VSC period helped him hold on to the eighth. Hulkenberg started on the softs, made a long opening relay and kept his nose clean to give Renault a home double.

Nico Hulkenberg, 9th

"It was good there today, I'm happy to win a few places and finish in points." Lap one was interesting, just to survive was important because it was a carnage everywhere. We were a bit on the back foot yesterday, so ninth was probably the best we could do today, I had fun there, making some overtaking and enjoying a bit of running. Carlos was on track for a good result and it is unfortunate that he missed the sixth because it would have been very good points for the team.Overall, we gained points in the Builders, so it's not so bad at all. "

Carlos Sainz, 8th

"It was a bit of a pain to finish the race like that, we had a good weekend from start to finish, we had a good qualifying, we had a good start in the first three, and we finished sixth. The second half of the race was fast and we handled the problem well until the sudden problem, which cost us a couple of seconds to lap. It's a shame and I'm sorry for the entire team because I think we deserve to be better today.These things come on the run, and this is my first issue of the year in Reliability. So let's continue and prepare Austria. "

Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal

"I will remember this weekend for a long time.Outside sports results, it was an amazing weekend and especially seeing the crowd just before the race was really something special." As a French team of the Championship, we were fully mobilized to make this first edition a success, so it was a huge reward for all the participants, including all the fans invited by Renault Let's go to the race, today we had a decent finish with a little frustration.It was a perfect weekend of Carlos, so I'm sorry for him and I lost some well deserved places because of the failure of the MGU- K. Nico struggled more this weekend and was not able to deliver his usual solid finish, but we left with a number of points on a track that we knew was difficult. fourth position and are now Five points ahead of our 2017 points total after just eight races. We are becoming stronger and we must use all the support we feel from the Grand Prix de France this weekend to keep pushing. "

Williams

Williams had work to do after a mediocre qualifying, but from there, they were forced to face both cars early after hitting debris. Trying to go to the end, Stroll snuggled and, on his stomach, he saw his tires while being lapped, before a tire blew him up and threw him into the fences. Sirotkin managed to treat his tires and his car in last place.

Sergey Sirotkin, 15th

"It was a pretty hectic race with good battles, I had fun in the first round, but obviously you want more pace to be able to fight and overtake people, but today this is n & # 39; Was not the case.Fighting rather than protecting, but it was still a no qualification … With our strategy we could fight against the cars until the end of the race, I always think that my race could have unfolded differently because I was stuck behind That cost me the brakes and the tires, and I could not do anything, what I think we could have done differently.I did what the team wanted me to do.We are where we are, it's not easy. "

Lance Stroll, DNF

"At first, the pace was not too bad and I had a good start: with about 20 laps to go, I felt a huge vibration on the car and it was just a big wear on the left front tire on this tire and then with Vandoorne when it doubled it was already so bad that I could not turn right, as I had not on the left tire.So with a few turns to make the vibration was so bad that the tire just blew It was optimistic to ride the entire race on a single pair of tires, and I think we were the only ones trying to doing everything we had to do, certainly not the race we were hoping for. "

Rob Smedley, Chief of Performance Engineering

"With the pace of the car, both low fuel and high fuel, it was always going to be extremely difficult so we looked at what tactics we could play." We were reasonably confident that we would have a perfect tire to do the job. race We decided to stop on a safety car in the first lap, hoping that faster cars would sneak up and out behind us. We deliberately put Sergey in a DRS train behind Lance so we could try to protect Ericsson and Hartley coming to the end … Unfortunately, at one point, Sergey lost the DRS. We managed to stay in the race against Alonso, which is a very small bonus in what was an extremely difficult weekend, Lance was unhappy with his puncture after a good start. Work for the team trying what they could try to improve our finishing position. This is not what we want however, and we must continue to work as a team to make things better. "

Haas

Magnussen made a good start, ran solidly into the top ten for most of the afternoon and did well to defend Bottas to take sixth place. Grosjean, however, had another day to forget – or more accurately, a first round to forget. He was hit by the damaged Vettel Ferrari early, and then collided with Ocon in an incident that earned him a five-second penalty. He narrowly missed points in P11.

Romain Grosjean, 11th

"We pushed as hard as we could, but we had damage on the car in the first lap, and it was difficult because it took a bit of aerodynamic balance." I came back as hard as I could, but we were just too far, the car is super fast and Kevin did a great job today, so I'm happy with that, but I want my turn to come because that bad luck gets a little painful. "

Kevin Magnussen, 6th

"It was a good race and we had a good car, we understood everything.It was a good race for us, and very happy to come back from the disappointment of yesterday.We knew we were still in a position where we could probably do something good in the race, and that was our day today.I struggled a little bit on the ultrasoftts out there in the first stint, just overheating and slipping on the For some reason, the front tires worked very well and the rear tires struggled, but the deterioration for us was quite low even though the balance was off when we put the softs, I thought. I started to heal them a bit, then when I was under pressure from Bottas, I really started to push, and then the tires became even more alive and I found the four tenths, half a second more … it was just c e of which I needed. "

Guenther Steiner, Team Director

"To finish sixth, we are very happy, we were lucky that Carlos (Sainz) had a problem in the end, and a bit unlucky with Romain because he was penalized." Hope we can continue this way because we finally have the car where it should be. "

Sauber

Ericsson had a quiet day towards the back of the midfield because all eyes were on Leclerc and he could stay in the top ten. The rookie had a good start, running up to sixth place before starting to pick up cars from behind. Nevertheless, he defended well and took all opportunities presented to lead a clean race and return home in P10.

Marcus Ericsson, 13th

"I'm pretty happy with my race, it was a tough weekend, and after starting only after running in FP1 and qualifying, we did a good job in pacing the pace during the race." got a good start and I was able to avoid the incident in the first lap and win positions.After that, I struggled with the balance of the car and did not advance not as good as we hoped.In the second half of the race, the car felt a lot better and things were going slower.The tires were working better, and I filled the gap We have also had a very quick refueling stop, now we have to make sure we understand what happened at the start of the race and come back to Austria again next week. "

Charles Leclerc, 10th

"Overall, I am satisfied with the result of this weekend, I had a great result yesterday and I felt confident in the car." Marked another point for the day. Team during the race today feels good.It was fun to drive, and I had good fights with the drivers around me.We are moving in a positive direction and improve our performance week. after week, I can not wait to see what will be possible next weekend. "

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal

"It was a positive weekend for us, we had a good pace in qualifying and we progressed step by step, and today our two drivers fought in midfield during the race, and we are progressing. Well as a team It is important for us to keep pushing and staying in the fight with our direct competition in the upcoming races.We are confident for the next Grand Prix in Austria. "

Toro Rosso

Gasly was another Frenchman who did not have a dream home race – he left for a gap that seemed opportunistic and collided with Ocon, retiring on the spot. Hartley made it to checkered flag, but after starting last has always been unlikely to have much impact. Toro Rosso tried an alternative strategy, doing a long first stint on the ultrasoft rubber but that turned out to be in vain and he finished 14th.

Pierre Gasly, DNF

"Je suis très déçu, c'était difficile de finir la course après seulement trois virages. Dans le virage 3, je suis allé à l'intérieur et je pensais qu'Evenban m'avait vu, quand j'ai vu qu'il fermait la porte, je ne pouvais pas éviter la collision. C'est dommage d'avoir cet incident – surtout au GP de France avec deux pilotes français. C'est très difficile à prendre, je voulais vraiment bien faire ce week-end et ce n'est définitivement pas voulu pour ma course à domicile. "

Brendon Hartley, 14e

"C'était une course propre et bonne, mais à partir de la fin, il était difficile de faire beaucoup de progrès. J'ai eu une bonne bataille avec Marcus au début, mais il m'a récupéré pendant les ravitaillements. Je n'ai pas eu de problème au premier tour – quelques voitures ont coupé la chicane et je n'ai pas beaucoup gagné de terrain, mais au moins j'ai pu garder la voiture en sécurité. J'aurais aimé que nous puissions faire plus de progrès mais finalement nous n'avions pas le rythme aujourd'hui. J'ai progressé et je me suis fait dépasser par les deux Williams, mais je ne pense pas que nous puissions faire beaucoup plus en course, c'est difficile quand on démarre à l'arrière. "

Toyoharu Tanabe, directeur technique Honda F1

"C'était un week-end compliqué et c'était extrêmement décevant pour nous et pour tous les fans français, que la course de Pierre était terminée juste quelques instants après le départ. Brendon, qui a débuté à l'arrière de la grille à cause des pénalités encourues, a remonté l'ordre alors que d'autres sont tombés et qu'il a également dépassé quelques voitures. Une course à oublier, mais au moins nous pouvons essayer de faire mieux, à partir de vendredi prochain en Autriche. "

Pirelli

Mario Isola, responsable des courses automobiles

"Une prévision météo incertaine a ajouté au jeu stratégique aujourd'hui, avec le risque de pluie signifiant que les équipes voulaient éviter le risque de se faire prendre sur le mauvais type de pneu. En fait, la pluie ne s'est pas concrétisée, mais c'était un autre facteur potentiel
garder à l'esprit. Comme prévu, il s'agissait d'une course à guichet unique pour la plupart des pilotes, mais il y avait une grande variété d'arrêts, y compris de très longs relais sur les pneus tendres. Nous avons également vu Sebastian Vettel et Valtteri Bottas terminer la course avec deux arrêts très différents, Ferrari et Mercedes ayant divisé leurs stratégies sur chacune de leurs voitures, réagissant aux circonstances de la course. Cela a confirmé notre attente que les trois composés étaient des choix valables dans le cadre d'une stratégie de course globale aujourd'hui, offrant une forte performance tout au long "