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Formula 1 French GP

French Grand Prix race day

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Grosjean has passed the grumpy Alonso for 11th and stormed away in pursuit of Leclerc.
Hamilton had a lot of traffic that lap - three cars to pass - and he loses 1.7 seconds to Verstappen. They cross the line 3.1s apart.
Vandoorne swaps to ultrasofts and rejoins 14th between the Williams of Stroll and Sirotkin.
Pit stop
Vandoorne pits, so Bottas moves up to eighth, Hulkenberg to ninth and Leclerc back into the points.
Vettel rejoins still in fifth - 35 seconds behind Raikkonen now.
Pit stop
Ferrari responds to Bottas's stop, calling Vettel in. He has to serve his five-second penalty, then gets a set of ultrasofts.
Vandoorne still has to make a pitstop so Bottas will gain that place back, but then he's got 8s to catch up to Magnussen in seventh.
Bottas comes back out down in ninth, behind Vandoorne.
Pit stop
Bottas pits from sixth, but there's a problem at the rear and it's an 8.7s stop.
Race management from Hamilton? The gap back to Verstappen has stayed under five seconds since the stops.
Radio Comms
"No brakes, no tyres, we are out of the points and trying to do whatever but I don't care too much," says a fed up Alonso.
Grosjean needed no time at all to clear the two Williams after his penalty-elongated-pitstop and is now 13th as Hartley pits. Grosjean is rapidly catching Alonso for 12th.
Lap 39/53: Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Vettel, Bottas.
Formation flying from the Ferraris, as Raikkonen moves ahead before the chicane.
Raikkonen has caught Vettel in the race for fourth.
Leclerc is attacking the yet-to-pit Hartley for 11th. A move at Turn 1 is a bit ambitious but he gets it done on DRS on the back straight.
Pit stop
Hulkenberg makes his pitstop, takes on new ultrasofts and rejoins ninth behind Sainz, Magnussen and Vandoorne (who'll need to pit).
Hulkenberg is still running seventh on the soft tyres he started the race with. But he's being rapidly caught by team-mate Sainz, who's 13.4s behind having started on ultrasofts then pitted for new softs.
Stopwatch
Fastest lap for Raikkonen in fifth - 1m34.8s. He is 3.1s behind his team-mate, who is on 35-lap-old tyres now.
Hamilton lost a few seconds to Verstappen during the pit stop phase, but Mercedes had a decent safety net so it could afford to let the Red Bull make a few gains that were never going to hurt Hamilton's race.
Bottas has now reached sixth ahead of Hulkenberg, restoring top three teams then all the rest order, but he's 20s behind next man up the road Raikkonen.
Pit stop
Leclerc doesn't have to attack Ericsson as Ericsson immediately makes his pitstop.
Gaps at the front: 
1 Hamilton2 Verstappen +5.4s,3 Ricciardo +13.2s,4 Vettel +16.2s, 5 Raikkonen +22.1s,6 Bottas + 41.5s
Leclerc flies past Alonso in a straight line to take 13th, and will now attack Sauber team-mate Ericsson for 12th.
Sainz goes past the yet-to-stop Vandoorne for eighth place.
That penalty means Grosjean rejoins last, behind the two Williams.
Lap 35/53: Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Vettel, Raikkonen, Bottas.
Pit stop
Grosjean makes his pitstop from eighth, and this will include a 5s penalty.
Pit stop
Raikkonen pits, and rejoins in a pretty lonely fifth place. Of the leaders, he is the only driver on supersofts. Everyone else is on softs.
Leclerc is now right behind Ericsson and Alonso's battle for 13th. Ericsson still has to pit, those behind him do not.
Vettel goes wide at Le Beausset, and Ricciardo sweeps through with ease.
Grosjean is still keeping his ultrasofts going in eighth with 19 of the 53 laps to go, and is 7s ahead of Vandoorne so that 5s time penalty is under control.
Ricciardo is in DRS range of Vettel now, closing up into the chicane but unable to make a pass this time.
Lap 34/53: Raikkonen, Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg. The drivers at each end of that list are yet to pit.
Sixth-placed Hulkenberg now has Bottas right on his tail. They're both on softs but Bottas can run them to the end as he took them on during his damage-repair pitstop while Hulkenberg started with them.

By: Geoff Creighton

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