It was the 88th running of the French Grand Prix,[2] and the 60th time the event had been included as a round of the Formula One World Championship since the inception of the series in 1950.

[3] The race was won by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

George Russell was required to start from the back of the grid as he exceeded his quota of power unit components, using a 3rd Energy Store (ES) and 3rd Control Electronics (CE).

The FIA also announced that they had moved to clamp down any potential corner cutting ahead of the French Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

The nature of the track, which had prominently been used as a test venue in preceding years, meant that there was a lot of runoff for the drivers if they made a mistake.

The rules would not strictly apply to free practice sessions, and each case was supposed to be handled and analysed differently depending on the circumstance.

[citation needed] The race began cleanly, with Carlos Sainz Jr. unsuccessfully attempting to overtake Max Verstappen and the two Mercedes cars maintaining their lead.

On lap 6, George Russell attempted an overtake on teammate Robert Kubica around the outside of turn 10, but was pushed off-track, destroying a polystyrene distance marker.

The decision was controversial, since Pérez had correctly passed around the penalty bollard after cutting turn 4 as specified by the race director, but had still overtaken Alexander Albon and Kevin Magnussen to claim 13th place as a result.