Settling of scores and satisfaction, the reactions of the Top 3 at Le Castellet

Once again, Max Verstappen livened up the press conference with his mischievousness, carrying a spirit of revenge against journalists who have often been very critical of him since the beginning of the season.

If he loudly proclaims to anyone willing to listen that he hasn’t changed his approach and has remained the same man since the beginning of the season, he nevertheless takes the opportunity to jab at the journalists present and also at Sebastian Vettel, absent from the conference as he only finished 5th in the race: « I think that the next time you see Seb, you should ask him to change his style. Honestly, it’s not acceptable, it’s exactly what he told me at the beginning of the season and I think he should do the same. Furthermore, he should learn from his mistakes and move forward… That’s the advice I give to everyone in this room. »

He then went into a bit more detail about his race, which he found a bit lonely: « I tried to follow Lewis. Of course, he was controlling the pace. I had a good race and enjoyed it. I didn’t have to put in a lot of effort for that, but it’s always nice to be on the podium. It was a somewhat solitary race, but I could always see Lewis far ahead of me, at least it kept me occupied! »

Lewis Hamilton, precisely, who didn’t have to push hard to win this French Grand Prix since Sebastian Vettel took care of eliminating his main competitors at the start. Far from worrying about the troubles of his rivals, he was keen to congratulate his team for the engine improvement introduced this weekend, which worked perfectly: “I have been with the guys for six years and they push the limits constantly, they never give up anything. I am very grateful for all their work. It’s a very good day.” As usual, he took the opportunity to greet the French fans, slipping in: “This is my best French Grand Prix!” A performance to be put into perspective by the fact that it was only his third, having finished 3rd and 10th in 2007 and 2008.

Back on the podium, Kimi Räikkönen sported a slight smile, a sign of great satisfaction for the Ferrari driver, even though he lost a few positions during the first corner confusion created by his teammate: « I think everyone made almost the same start. It was quite slippery at the first corner and I chose the outside. But that was a bad idea and I should have slowed down to take the inside. I was blocked by all that chaos. »

From our special correspondent in Le Castellet