The Ferrari driver collided with the Briton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the start of Sunday’s French Grand Prix, an error that handed the championship lead to eventual race victor Hamilton.
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PARIS, France, Jun 24- Lewis Hamilton expressed his relief and puzzlement after claiming pole position for Sunday’s French GP.
When Verstappen, race victor Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and third place finisher Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari were asked in the post-race press conference about the severity of the penalty that was issued to Vettel for causing the collision with Bottas, Verstappen could only joke about it.
Vettel’s fifth place means that he loses the lead of the championship that he regained at the last race in Canada, and now trails Hamilton by 14 points as the teams head to Austria.
Bottas had to restart at the back of the pack with Vettel, who race officials gave a five-second penalty for causing the collision.
Vettel had enjoyed the better start and ran on Hamilton’s tail towards the first corner, but Bottas came back down the outside and was ahead into the braking zone before the contact.
Another X-Factor for Mercedes is Valtteri Bottas having his chance to fend Ferrari and Red Bulls following the engine updates.
He added: “I hope when we get to Austria that the journalists ask him if he will change his approach because that is what l heard for so many races”.
“In the end there wasn’t that much that I could have done different”, Vettel said.
Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull was fourth and is third in the standings with 96 points, followed by Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes with 92, Raikkonen with 83 and Verstappen 68. He was under pressure from Max as far as I saw as well.
Hamilton was over a tenth of a second faster than his team mate Valtteri Bottas, and nearly four tenths ahead of title rival Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel charged on the restart on lap six and moved swiftly through the pack, making it to 12th by the end of lap seven. “I went for the outside and I think I braked quite a bit later and left enough room for him to be inside still”, Bottas said.
Ricciardo, victor of two races this season and still mulling his future options, was third fastest for Red Bull in the first session in 1:32.527.
It was a slow stop, at 8.7 seconds, and dropped him to ninth just as Vettel pitted again, taking his penalty before he rejoined fifth for the final charge.
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“Overall, it was a good session and now we need to carry on this performance through the weekend”. Vettel’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the podium in third. But we have a race with Ferrari.
