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In what is likely to be the last race at the Circuit Paul Ricard for a while, RedBull’s Max Verstrappen registered his seventh victory of the season after pole-sitter Charles Leclerc crashed out.

It was a bad day at the office for both Ferrari drivers - Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz - with the former crashing his car on the 18th lap, while the latter battled penalties to finish fifth. Sainz’s recovery from the back of the grid was marred by suspect strategy from his team.

After this victory, Verstappen goes into the next race with a 63 point cushion in the title race, a lead that could very well become unassailable for Leclerc and Ferrari, especially if Verstappen continues to grab easy wins.

Despite being the weaker car of the top three teams, Mercedes sealed a double podium after George Russell snuck past Sergio Perez in the closing stages.

Seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton registered another milestone, this time for race starts. On his 300th Grand Prix start, the veteran Brit ended up second, his 187th podium.

Once a championship contender, now a midfield maestro. Spaniard Fernando Alonso continued his hot streak to finish sixth behind fellow countryman Sainz, helping Alpine ease into the fourth spot in the Constructors Championship.

In a lacklustre performance, McLaren’s bid to be the ‘best of the rest’ took a hit, with its drivers finishing seventh and ninth respectively. Young gun Lando Norris continues to outperform team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, putting further pressure on the latter’s seat

On the final corner of the race, team mates Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel missed contact by centimetres, with both of them battling for the final points place. Stroll came up on top, at a time when talk of his team mate retiring have been doing the rounds.

Le Castellet returned to the F1 calendar only in 2018 after a hiatus, which is likely to be the case again as F1 and the Circuit Paul Ricard don’t have an agreement in place, yet. Chances of a return are low, however, with F1 courting a Nice street track as a possible future venue.