Lewis Hamilton (P2, 18 pts): 9.5/10
It's time to admit the unthinkable: that Mercedes no longer has the best car on the grid. They're very much in second place and playing catch-up to Red Bull, and the only major weapon left in their arsenal at the moment is the undoubted talent of Lewis Hamilton who threw everything he had into this race. Yet he still couldn't snatch the win, despite having the lead dropped into his lap at turn 2 when Max Verstappen made a rare mistake in the gusty conditions. Hamilton then proceeded to pull out a three second lead over his rival that should have been more than good enough to keep control of the race after the pit stops, but Verstappen achieved the impossible and achieved a "stonking" undercut (in Christian Horner's words) that left Mercedes reeling and seemingly paralysed so that they didn't respond when Verstappen subsequently switched to a two stop strategy. It left Hamilton with nothing to work with, and despite some of his best defensive driving he finally succumbed and lost the lead with two laps remaining. "It was pointless to defend any harder," he said later. "If he didn’t pass me there, he would have passed me the straight afterwards. It made zero difference."
Max Verstappen (Pole, P1, Fastest lap, 26 pts): 10/10
We haven't always bought into the hype surrounding Max Verstappen, but we have grown increasingly impressed over the last year or so by the way that he's lost that 'red mist' impetuosity of his early years and become a composed, battle-hardened campaigner. We had worried that the heart-wrenching setback of his dramatic retirement in Baku and all those lost points would be preying on his mind in Le Castellet, but if so then it was in the best of ways as it motivated him to arguably the best, most complete performance of his career. Not only did he manage to out-drive Lewis Hamilton he also out-thought him, despite being compromised by problems with his team radio limiting communications with the Red Bull pit wall. Yes, Max made a mistake at the start and lost the lead but he kept his head in adversity and plotted his way back to the front, and then had the courage to give up the lead a second time in pursuit of a daring two-stop strategy that he pulled off to perfection. Add to that getting pole position and the point for fastest lap and you have the sort of total performance that does indeed truly herald the rise of a future world champion.
