Parisian chaos gives Vettel second consecutive victory

Qualifying:

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Time
1	27	Jules Bianchi		1:35.303
2	96	Diego Álvarez Torrente		1:35.342
3	1	Pastor Maldonado		1:35.746
4	64	Dave Cassidy		1:35.786
5	18	Sebastian Vettel		1:36.018
6	33	Salvatore Miccoli		1:36.022
7	73	Daniel Melrose		1:36.172
8	47	Lando Norris		1:36.221
9	3	Marvin Kirchhöfer		1:36.261
10	35	Sergey Sirotkin		1:36.298
11	6	Artem Markelov		1:36.746
12	11	James James Davies		1:36.818
13	57	Dean Stoneman		1:36.889
14	56	Einar Ármannsson		1:36.931
15	99	Mike Rockenfeller		1:37.018
16	14	Marcel Agyemang-Badu		1:37.025
17	7	Charles Leclerc		1:37.028
18	94	Pascal Wehrlein		1:37.499
19	55	Santiago Urrutia		1:37.534
20	19	Jordan Davies		1:37.933
21	37	Kazuki Nakajima		1:37.973
22	10	Pierre Gasly		1:38.050
23	98	Bradley Dagnall		1:38.091
24	23	Alexander Albon		1:38.169

Report:

After last year’s challenging and mistake-inducing race, the race at Paris in 2020 was expected to follow a similar pattern. Fresh off the news that the event would be shelved in favour of a return to Monaco in 2021, the organisers promised to put on an entertaining race to try and get it back onto the calendar for 2022 onwards. It certainly followed up from last year’s error-inducing event in terms of mistakes.

Lando Norris and Daniel Melrose ended each other’s races at the first corner, James James Davies spun out and was collected by Jordan Davies, Precision had reliability issues – Bianchi suffering a water leak and Torrente’s gearbox breaking, Nakajima made an amateurish error by spinning three times in the same place, and Charles Leclerc made a rookie error at a crucial moment in the race.

However, one man who redeemed himself over last year’s shenanigans was Sebastian Vettel. He carefully guided his car past the broken Precisions to win again and following him in tow was Pastor Maldonado, the Venezuelan suffering a miserable title defence in his Sauber, managing to get his first podium finish of the year with a fine 2nd, with his teammate Dean Stoneman in 4th. Marcel Agyemang-Badu also profited from the erratic race to secure his 2nd podium of the year.

Behind them Mansell scored another solid points finish with a 5th and 6th, Einar Ármannsson scored valuable points for Calinetic, and Mike Rockenfeller once again proved to be inept and disappointing with an 11th place finish.

Race:

Pos	#	Driver	Constructor	Time/Retired	Points
1	18	Sebastian Vettel		52:28.835	15
2	1	Pastor Maldonado		+15.270	12
3	14	Marcel Agyemang-Badu		+25.929	10
4	57	Dean Stoneman		+27.648	8
5	35	Sergey Sirotkin		+28.462	6
6	6	Artem Markelov		+29.568	5
7	33	Salvatore Miccoli		+32.542	4
8	56	Einar Ármannsson		+38.710	3
9	3	Marvin Kirchhöfer		+40.097	2
10	7	Charles Leclerc		+43.039	1
11	99	Mike Rockenfeller		+49.901	0
12	94	Pascal Wehrlein		+55.900	0
13	55	Santiago Urrutia		+58.518	0
14	98	Bradley Dagnall		+102.575	0
15	10	Pierre Gasly		1 Lap	0
16	23	Alexander Albon		Suspension	0
DNF	37	Kazuki Nakajima		Accident	0
DNF	64	Dave Cassidy		Motor	0
DNF	96	Diego Álvarez Torrente		Transmission	0
DNF	27	Jules Bianchi		Water Leak	0
DNF	19	Jordan Davies		Collision	0
DNF	11	James James Davies		Collision	0
DNF	73	Daniel Melrose		Collision	0
DNF	47	Lando Norris		Collision	0

Fastest Lap:

Jules Bianchi – 1:38.940

Infinite Improbability Drive Of The Race:

Sauber-Judd – they finally showed some semblance to last year’s title-winning ways.

Reject Of The Race:

Precision-Mercedes – threw away a guaranteed 1-2 finish with mechanical issues.