Sebastian Vettel will count himself lucky after triggering a first lap melee when he collided with the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas on the opening lap of the French Grand Prix, thereafter the German was left to play catch-up and his reward at the end of the day was fifth place.
After making a strong start Vettel tagged the rear of the Mercedes as the field slithered through Turn 1 and Turn 2 complex, which sent it spinning with a puncture while he damaged the front wing on the Ferrari. That incident coupled to another collision in the midpack prompted a safety car phase to clear the debris.
Vettel pitted to replace the front wing, while Bottas limped to the pits to replace his punctured tyre. Stewards had a look at the incident and handed the German a five seconds penalty for causing the collision.
Vettel explained afterwards, "My start was too good and then I ended up with nowhere to go. It was my mistake. I tried to brake early and get out of it but I had no room.
"Valtteri tried to get his position back which is fair enough but then I had nowhere to go. The turn goes left and I tried to slow down but with that little grip, I therefore unfortunately made contact with Valtteri."
Prior to the race Ferrari were expected to take the race to Mercedes, but with Vettel and Bottas marginalised Lewis Hamilton went on to score a commanding victory on the day, virtually unchallenged.
Vettel lamented, "I think we had good pace. I tried to hammer through the field to recover, and damaged the tyres. I think we had decent pace to go at least with Mercedes."
Vettel arrived in France leading the championship by a single point over Hamilton, he departed Circuit Paul Ricard in second place, 14 points adrift of top spot.
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