Formula 1: 2018 French Grand Prix results – Lewis Hamilton dominates

Lewis Hamilton dominated the French Grand Prix for his third win of the 2018 Formula 1 season and his third win in the last five races.

After somewhat of a slow start to the 2018 Formula 1 season, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton has now won three of the last five races, and he was won two of those three races in dominant fashion.

Following finishes of third and fifth place in the Monaco Grand Prix and the Canadian Grand Prix, respectively, Hamilton bounced back and dominated the French Grand Prix, the eighth race of the 21-race 2018 season, to regain the the lead he in the driver standings over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who finished the race in fifth, after he lost that lead and fell behind Vettel by one point following Vettel’s victory in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Hamilton won the French Grand Prix at the 15-turn, 3.630-mile (5.842-kilometer) Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, Var, France by 7.090 seconds over Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in second place.

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The race featured two lead changes among two drivers. Aside of Hamilton, who led 52 of the race’s 53 laps, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen also led the race. He led one lap, as Hamilton came into the pits one lap before Raikkonen did. After Raikkonen came into pits, Hamilton regained the lead and did not look back.

These two lead changes were the first two lead changes since the two lead changes that took place as a result of Hamilton pitting in the Spanish Grand Prix, which was the fifth race of the season and the other race that he has dominated so far this season.

There have still been no on-track lead changes since the fourth race of the season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which Hamilton also won.

The race featured a safety car period that began on lap one as a result of a multitude of incidents, most notably contact between Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Sahara Force India’s Esteban Icon. This contact took both drivers out of the race.

There was also contact between Vettel and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas on the first lap of the race, which damaged Vettel’s front wing and punctured Bottas’s left rear tire, sending both drivers to the back of the pack before the ensuing restart. As referenced above, Vettel rebounded to finish the race in fifth place. Bottas finished in seventh.

Of the 20 drivers who started the race, 15 finished it. Of the 15 drivers who finished the race, 10 finished it on the lead lap.

Here are the full race results of the 2018 French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Ricard.

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The next Formula 1 race is scheduled to take place next Sunday, July 1. That race is the Austrian Grand Prix, which is set to be broadcast live on ESPN2 from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria starting at 9:10 a.m. ET.