Lewis Hamilton dominated the French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Ricard Sunday afternoon, leading every lap after starting from the pole en route to his sixth victory of the season.
The Mercedes driver would win take the cross the finish line 18 seconds ahead of second place finisher and teammate Valtteri Bottas.
“I’ve been racing a long time, but it never gets old,” Hamilton said following his victory.
“I couldn’t do what I do without this incredible team. We’re making history together. I’m really hyped”
The win is the tenth consecutive victory for Mercedes in F1, having won every race since the Brazilian Grand Prix last November. It is also the sixth consecutive 1-2 finish for the team – a F1 record.
Charles Leclerc would finish third, taking the final spot on the podium for Ferrari.
Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel were the remaining two drivers to finish on the lead lap, finishing fourth and fifth respectively.
Carlos Sainz would finish sixth, and although Daniel Ricciardo would seventh initially, he was assessed two five-second penalties by officals, which saw him drop to the eleventh position. Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg, Lando Norris, and Pierre Gasly would round out the top ten.
Full race results are below. The next race is the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring on June 30.
MONTEREY, Calif. â At her familyâs home in Nashville, Tennessee, Tina Newgarden always keeps an extra stash of corn chowder in the freezer.
She never knows when her son, Josef, unexpectedly might drop by in desperate need of his go-to comfort food.
âItâs just in case Iâm not at home, and he just goes in and grabs it himself if heâs coming home from out of town,â Tina said with a knowing smile. âAnd then youâll catch him down there eating his favorite soup and watching a movie.â
When he gets done this week with the whirlwind of media obligations required after becoming an NTT IndyCar Series champion for the second time, you probably will find Newgarden curled up on the couch with a warm bowl of old-fashioned goodness in his lap and an inspirational flick on the TV (perhaps a screening of âReturn of the Jediâ for a Star Wars fan).
That was evident in the tears that flowed immediately after he exited his No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet and seemed ready to collapse in a pool of relief from the mental exhaustion and high anxiety that had followed his quest to become a two-time champion.
If thereâs anyone who knew how the 2019 points battle weighed on him, it was Ashley Welch and the rest of Newgardenâs family â the outlet that was emotionally invested and supportive of his career but also provides a release from the tension.
Josef Newgarden celebrates with his father, Joey (left), his grandmother Karen Rasmussen (front), his fiancee, Ashley (second from right), and mother Tina (right) after his second championship (Photo by Robert Reiners/Getty Images).
They were all on hand Sunday (including his father, Joey, and his âMormorâ Karen Rasmussen, the 80-year-old maternal grandmother who came from Denmark to attend her second IndyCar race) and shared in the culmination of whatâs been a very emotional and eventful year (which still has wedding bells ahead).
Josef Newgarden with his grandmother (Photo by Robert Reiners/Getty Images).
âFor him to be leading all of those different guys who had just as much potential, if not more sometimes. It means so much. We had a friend tell him after the first one, anyone can win one championship, but they remember you if you win two. So I think he feels like âOh, itâs not just luck. Iâm meant to be here.â And that is âŠâ
Welch paused and her voice briefly quavered as she watched Newgarden, whom she has been together with for seven years (they were engaged last October), hoist the Astor Cup above his head.
âBeautiful,â she smiled. âSo I think you see all his emotion coming from it. I know him, and heâs thinking about how many people put their neck on the line to get him to where he is today. He talks about when he was little and starting to watch IndyCar racing, Penske was his pinnacle. Getting to drive for them but being able to perform and make an impact on their history, he feels it so much.
âYou saw all the outpouring of âMy dreams have come true! Iâve worked so hard, and theyâre here!â
It certainly was a different feeling than two years ago when Newgarden won the pole position at Sonoma, led 41 laps and won punctuated his inaugural championship with a runner-up finish in the season finale.
Sundayâs drive was indicative of the weight â and wait — that Newgarden had endured while leading the championship standings for virtually six consecutive months since winning the season opener at St. Petersburg (he was out of the points only once â after a fourth in the Indianapolis 500 that now is the only void in his career).
âThe first (championship), it was shocking and overwhelming,â Tina Newgarden said. âThe second time itâs almost like he had this mark on his back because heâs been leading the points the whole season. So it would be really sad, devastating if he didnât get it at the end of the season. But Iâm so proud of him. Heâs very disciplined. He just loves it so much.â
âIf heâs down and has a bad day, then weâre down having a bad day as well. Itâs terrible, but thatâs just how it is. This is a good year, so now we can all breathe. The last two months has really been a little stressful. So yeah. Weâve been trying to keep the mood up, but God, Iâm so happy!â
Newgarden, who qualified fourth and never had winning pace all weekend, said he felt âmore nervous because I felt like this one was more ours to lose, and I thought we deserved (the championship). I didnât want to make a mistake. I got a bit nervous in the middle of the race because I thought we were going down a rabbit hole we didnât want to be down.â
But the very un-Newgarden-esque eighth â only the fourth time in 17 races he finished outside the top 10 this season â was the outcome of a sound pit strategy that delivered the title by 25 points over Simon Pagenaud, who proclaimed his Penske teammate âthe most deserving guyâ to win the title.
âIt didnât really start weighing on me until we got (to Laguna Seca),â Newgarden said. âI knew it would hit me here because it was double points. You know itâs going to be a very difficult situation. Itâs just that intensity and that unknown, where if you make a small mistake, it can turn into a very big mistake. At another event, it wouldnât be that way.â
Team owner Roger Penske noticed Newgarden had butterflies on the race morning before he would join Sam Hornish Jr. as the only American to win multiple IndyCar championships in the past two decades. âI think there’s so much emotion inside for someone like that because you’ve got to be perfect,â Penske said. âAnd I think the fact that he was able to execute the way he did, it was just a time to let it all out.â
Newgarden now is among lofty company on a list of multi-time champions at Team Penske that includes Rick Mears, Tom Sneva, Al Unser and Gil de Ferran. And his four-win season helped him take a critical step toward putting his name with true IndyCar legends such as A.J. Foyt (seven championships), Scott Dixon (five) and Mario Andretti (four).
âIâve heard a lot of people say itâs harder to win a second championship than a first,â he said. âAnd I think in a lot of ways, thatâs true. Itâs very difficult to win a championship. But then to follow it up and make it happen again, it seems like a bigger mountain almost.
âI donât know what causes that. But I just had it in my mind that if we could get this done, itâd be the achievement of the year.â
Itâs especially impressive considering everything Newgarden is trying to accomplish in 2019. Besides winning a championship, he also:
–Will be getting married Oct. 26 to Welch in Nashville;
–Began building a house with Welch, who also brought home a rescue pup named Zoomer (or affectionately known as âZoomâ around home). âThey say a year, but itâs going to be a year and a halfâ to finish, Welch said with a laugh. âWe were in a one-bedroom apartment. I told him I donât want to have kids in a one-bedroom apartment.â
âWe could have taken a couple things off the plate,â Newgarden said. âBut you know what? Everything needed to be done. We wanted everything to get done, and weâre doing it all. I donât know how the year worked out, because (racing) is the priority. You do all those things and decide, âYeah, weâre going to make the plate this full.â But something still has to take the cake at the end of the day, and the racing is what does that. And everyone knows thatâs the program, and this is the most important part of the year, because you donât get that back.
âIf you have an opportunity to race and compete for a championship, when itâs there, youâve got to take it. So I tried to keep that at the forefront of my mind all year, and I made it the priority, but it was just a little more difficult with all the other things going on.â
Josef Newgarden kisses his fiancee, Ashley Welch, after winning the NTT IndyCar Series championship (Photo by Robert Reiners/Getty Images).
Welch, who knew nothing about racing while working as a princess cast member at Disney World when Newgarden âswept me off my feet,â provides a release valve. Though she is comfortable with being a knowledgeable member of the paddock (âI know what push to pass means. That was a big thing for meâ), Welch also can help distract him from the pressure of IndyCar.
âI think itâs better to know less, because then he is able to escape at home and make home be home, and then work be work,â she said. âBecause when youâre in a professional sport, you canât really escape the work. It comes home with you whether in interviews or social media, or just obligations in general, or practice, or research. Youâre always living in it, so I think itâs really smart to just have your home be home.â
In that sense, staying busy in his personal life has been good for the extremely affable Newgarden, a self-described introvert who gradually has withdrawn from social media in his late 20s.
Though he is as articulate and eloquent as any driver in auto racing, he also is happy to defer to his teammates on promotional opportunities because âI go home and am happy to be away from all of it. ⊠I donât mean that in a bad way, itâs just my introverted-ness thatâs getting worse. I really try to do the best I can for the series and team and partners. It is so important to represent in the right way, but at the same time, itâs gotten harderâ to be on social media in a professional setting.
âItâs all the racing,â Tina Newgarden said when asked about the source of her sonâs stress. âHim building a house and all that, thatâs nothing. Thatâs easy. (Winning a championship) is not easy. Anything else is easy.
âHe got it, so Iâm so proud of him. Heâs one of the very lucky ones that made it here, because for every one, Iâm sure there are 500 (drivers) looking in, wanting to have that. But he worked hard, and I just told him one time, âDonât be so moody about it when it doesnât go well.â Heâs still moody about it if it doesnât go well! Heâs still the same.â
Thatâs why the bowl of corn chowder still is waiting in her freezer.
A hearty meal for two-time champion who finally can relax.
