The 8^th stage of the championship has ended in Le Castellet. Mercedes continues to make history, winning the 8^th race in a row, and marks the 50^th 1-2 finish for the team in Formula 1. 

The results of the Grand Prix were no surprises: on the first two steps of the podium we again saw Mercedes drivers, in the usual order for us - the winner Lewis and the second Valtteri. The current champion of F1 was unstoppable during the whole race and finished with a margin of 18 seconds.

The weekend in France this year was quite difficult for drivers and teams. Hot weather, hot asphalt, high tyre wear. Starting from Friday drivers complained about the tyres work, which was a key point in Sunday's race. During the race, Hamilton has repeatedly complained that his tyres were graining, but this didn't prevent him from showing one best lap after the next.

Despite Lewis and his main rival Sebastian Vettel hadn’t chance for the real fight on the track, they staged a fight for the fastest lap. Throughout the race, Lewis and Valtteri in turns set the fastest laps. The British in his classic style was complaining about the tyres, but continuing to set the best time over and over again, and beat the track records. On the 52^nd lap of the race Sebastian Vettel went to the pits, where he took Soft to get the fastest lap and extra point. However, at the same time, Lewis again showed the best time, and it seemed that Ferrari strategy has failed. Nevertheless, Sebastian managed to drive the final lap better than his rival –1:32.740 against Hamilton’s 1:32.764, only 0,02 seconds!

Unfortunately, despite another double podium for the team, Valtteri Bottas gradually loses to his teammate. Only the 8^th stage of the season is over, but it seems that there is nothing left of that brave and daring Valtteri, whom we saw at the beginning of the season. Today's race was pretty quiet for the Finn. However, he didn't have the speed like Hamilton had. At the finish he was behind the British by 18 (!) seconds. On the final lap, Charles Leclerc from Ferrari almost overtook Valtteri, but the driver kept his position.

So, now the situation is reminiscent of the years when the team had Nico Rosberg. Obviously, the Ferrari is no longer a threat to Mercedes. However, if Bottas doesn't revive, he risks to give all the remaining wins to Hamilton.

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