Allez les blue and red stripes.
The Burning Questions
Can Mercedes recover from two tough weekends?
Will we see any more tyre dramas?
Will the new wing tests have a noticeable effect on the competitive order?
The Track
The Stats
- Track Length: 5.842 km
- Laps: 53
- Race Distance: 309.690 km
- Maximum Speed: 340 km/h
- Lap Time at Full Throttle: 65%
- First Grand Prix: 1971 (Paul Ricard) | 1950 (French GP)
- Race Lap Record: Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 2019 | 1:32.740
- Outright Lap Record: Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 2019 | 1:28.319
- Most Driver Wins: Alain Prost | 1983, 1988, 1989, 1990
- Most Constructor Wins: McLaren/Williams | 1976, 1988, 1989/1980, 1986, 1987
The Trivia
- Paul Ricard offers 167 track configurations, from 0.8 km to 5.5 km
- Elio de Angelis was killed at the circuit in 1986 when the wing on his Brabham BT55 detached at high speed
- On eight occasions (1971, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1989, 2018 and 2019) the winner at Paul Ricard has gone on to win the World Championship in the same year. Ronnie Peterson (1973, 1974) and René Arnoux (1982) are the only winners who did not win the championship
- The circuit was opened on 19th April 1970 with finance from pastis magnate Paul Ricard
The Weather
The Quotes
Lewis Hamilton | “Fortunately with two terrible races for us we managed to still be close so the race is still very much on. I’m definitely looking forward to getting a track where shouldn’t be as affected by tyre temps. It has been good for us in the past here but I anticipate a tough weekend. The Red Bull has shown some serious pace as well at more conventional tracks like Barcelona.”
Max Verstappen | “Around Paul Ricard, we haven’t been amazing in previous years but I do think our whole package is more competitive this year so I am looking forward to seeing what we can do here.”
Valtteri Bottas | “With Toto we speak often and we have both spoken lately as normal. That’s not true that speculation. I’m sure there is all kinds of speculation not based on facts – people trying to make up stories for clicks. That’s how it goes.”
Esteban Ocon | “It’s a fantastic feeling to secure my future with Alpine. We’ve been progressing well together since I joined the team and I aim to continue that journey going forward. There are great challenges ahead of us, especially with the new regulations in 2022.”
The Friday Form
Practice 2 Top 5
1 | Max Verstappen | 1:32.872 | 21 Laps
2 | Valtteri Bottas | 1:32.880 | 27 Laps
3 | Lewis Hamilton | 1:33.125 | 23 Laps
4 | Fernando Alonso | 1:33.340 | 25 Laps
5 | Charles Leclerc | 1:33.550 | 23 Laps
Practice 1 Top 5
1 | Valtteri Bottas | 1:33.448 | 24 Laps
2 | Lewis Hamilton | 1:33.783 | 21 Laps
3 | Max Verstappen | 1:33.880 | 23 Laps
4 | Sergio Pérez | 1:34.193 | 25 Laps
5 | Esteban Ocon | 1:34.329 | 25 Laps
It is shaping up to be another close battle between Red Bull and Mercedes at Paul Ricard.
Mercedes took a 1-2 in the morning session, but Red Bull and Verstappen recovered in the afternoon to edge Practice 2 by 0.008 seconds.
Tyres once again look to be an issue, with Bottas unable to improve on his time on the medium tyres as his softs overheated during his qualifying simulation. Hamilton did improve on the softs but remained almost a quarter of a second and complained that there was “something not right with the car”. Whether that has anything to do with Mercedes having swapped his and Bottas’s chassis remains to be seen.
The Photos
The Predictions
Podium
Pole Position
Fastest Lap
Driver of the Day
