Lewis Hamilton cruises to dominant French GP victory

Lewis Hamilton led from first corner to last to claim a conventional victory in the French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Ricard, after an incident involving Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas on the first lap effectively ended both drivers' chances of victory.

In an explosive start, cars were sent in every direction into the run-off areas after Vettel slammed into the back of Bottas, destroying the Finns' tyre and his own car's nose as a result. Both of them had to pit and moved to the back of the grid as the safety car was deployed.

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly on their home Grands Prix also pummelled into one another and went out on the very first corner of the race and, with Sergio Perez forced to retire later, lead to a weekend to forget for Force India.

MORE: Watch crazy start to French GP

Amidst the carnage Lewis Hamilton was able to pull clear of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, and the story of the race became Vettel and Bottas' attempts to cut through the field from the gap, though the former knew he would be facing a five-second penalty as a result of his coming together with Bottas.

Vettel produced incredible speed to get back through the field to fifth by lap 22, while Bottas took a little longer to cut his way back into the points.

Hamilton pitted at lap 34 allowing Kimi Raikkonen to lead briefly but the Finn soon followed suit allowing Hamilton to complete his procession to the finish line and move back ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the driver's championship, with Verstappen producing another positive drive to join him on the podium in second.

Vettel, on the other hand, had to pit on lap 40 having extracted everything he could from his tyres and collected his penalty, pushing back behind team-mate Raikkonen and had to settle for fifth position. This left Raikkonen the chance to hunt down Ricciardo in third, who suffered a minor issue that was costing him time every lap. It was a matter of time and Kimi eventually got through on lap 47 to ensure that there was at least one Ferrari on the podium.

An incident with Lance Stroll, who suffered a spectacular tyre blow out with three laps remaining, meant that a Virtual Safety Car brought the race to a conclusion. But it was Hamilton's weekend from start to finish - onto the Austrian Grand Prix next weekend.

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A controlled race from Hamilton and the 26th different circuit where he's won!#FrenchGP ???????? #F1 pic.twitter.com/EAr0dCXJ5f — Formula 1 (@F1) June 24, 2018