At the following round in France, Norris and Sainz had equally strong qualifying sessions, qualifying in P5 and P6 respectively. Sainz's momentum would translate into the race, finishing in P6, only around 33 seconds behind Sebastian Vettel in a frontrunning Ferrari. As for Norris, he had a strong performance, running comfortably in P7 up until the final lap, where he would suffer from hydraulic problems and gradually lose pace. He would then be passed by Daniel Ricciardo before turn 8 to take his position, however for Ricciardo, he ran deep into the corner, and forced Norris off whilst rejoining the circuit in turn 9. The incident allowed Kimi Räikkönen and Nico Hülkenberg past both drivers. On the following straight, Ricciardo went off-track to overtake the Finnish driver for position. He was later handed two five-second penalties after the race for unsafely rejoining the track and gaining an advantage off track. Norris was elevated to P9 after Ricciardo's penalties.