Max Verstappen put in a dominant drive to win the French Grand Prix finishing ten seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The Red Bull driver looked to control the race after his championship rival Charles Leclerc retired with a throttle issue which spun him out while leading the race from pole on lap nineteen.
Verstappen then controlled the race from the restart building his lead over Lewis Hamilton and George Russell through the second half of the race. He nailed it pulling ahead of the Mercedes before building the ten second lead, as he looks to be on course to take a second world championship.
Hamilton meanwhile looked comfortable in second on what has been one of the team’s strongest races of the season, the team again proving better on race pace than in qualifying.
Leclerc lost control of the Ferrari on lap eighteen at Beausset, the rear appeared to get away from him as he spun into the wall. He appeared to be frustrated by his mistake which propelled Verstappen into the lead, one he capitalised on with a comfortable victory to extend his championship to sixty-three point lead in the drivers with ten races to go.
In the early phase when Leclerc was leading Verstappen appeared to be struggling for grip, and at one stage even ran wide at Turn Six. By lap fourteen he has dropped out of DRS range but with Verstappen making his first stop Ferrari triggered ‘Plan B’ as they didn’t have Carlos Sainz to cover off Verstappen, as his grid penalty left him running down the order at that stage in the race.
The title race clearly swinging towards Verstappen, it would require a huge swing in luck towards Leclerc to over turn the Dutchman’s sixty three point lead in the drivers. But there is time at the halfway stage in the season, Ferrari know they need to be smart if they are to claim their first titles in fifteen years.
It is possible that it wasn’t a driver error which led to Leclerc crashing out, the throttle issue may have led to the car shutting down. But again, the Monacan was ever self-critical saying “A mistake, a mistake.”
Now well and truly on the back foot in the title race, having retired while leading from three races, he added: “I’ve been saying I think I’m performing at my highest level in my career but if I keep doing those mistakes then it’s pointless to perform at a very high level. I’m losing too many points. It unacceptable, I just need to get on top of those things.”
Verstappen said “The car was quick today – of course, unlucky for Charles, I hope he is OK – but I just did my race and looked after the tyres. We still have a bit of work to do, over a single lap especially, so we just have to keep on working.”
Hamilton took second on his three-hundredth start holding off his teammate Russell to take his best finish of the year, although he was never a contender for victory at a race which would have equalled his longest wait for a win in a season. But he was holding his own after jumping Perez at the start building a three-second lead before Leclerc’s crash.
He said, “Reliability is one thing my team is amazing at so huge congratulations to the team back at the factories and the team here, without them we wouldn’t get this podium. George did an amazing job as well.”
Russell finished third after taking advantage of Sergio Perez’s slow start following the final Virtual Safety Car, which allowed the Mercedes to serge pass him. Russell gained third with ten lap to go, but Perez ran wide cutting the Mistral Chicane and wasn’t ordered to give the place back by the stewards, a decision Russell made plain he felt was wrong.
But the Englishman found a way back and managed to hang onto it despite making a mistake on the final lap. They would again find themselves fighting each other on the last lap, Perez tired to take advantage on the penultimate lap, but Russell despite a mistake hung on to take third.
Mercedes looked to continue their fight back, proving quick and again not bouncing their way along the strait. All season they have been faster over a race distance than on a single lap, Hamilton revealed after the race that he was without a drinks bottle during the race in sweltering conditions.
The performance by Mercedes at the last few races have marked a remarkable turn around over the last four races, the result was all the more impressive given his revelation that he was without a drinks bottle during the race in sweltering conditions.
Sainz recovered from a back-of-the-grid start due to a ten place penalty for changing components on his engine. But again, Ferrari’s decision to pit him with ten laps to go when he had a five-second penalty for an unsafe release at his first stop, Sainz at the time was locked in a battle with Perez and re-joined in ninth.
The Spaniard then made his way back to fifth, finishing fourteen seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso. It was an impressive drive by Sainz who at one stage ran third having started last despite not being able to recover the positions lost by his penalty, but that extra stop cost him.
The decision to bring Sainz in was made after he had passed Perez, questioned by the driver who believed he could have caught the Red Bull, while Ferrari insisted his tyres wouldn’t have lasted the final eleven laps. A perhaps unnecessary pit stop for the Spaniard but Ferrari may have believed they could regain position.
Ferrari’s season faltering seriously, Leclerc has already lost two races because of engine failures and two strategy errors while leading, but now Leclerc has made a big one, to add to the small mistake that turned third place into sixth at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix back in April.
Lando Norris spilt the two Alpine’s the McLaren driver finishing nine seconds behind the two-time champion, and ahead of Esteban Ocon by almost five seconds. The Frenchman picking up a penalty during the race for hitting Yuki Tsunoda at the Mistral Chicane for spinning the Alpha Tauri driver on the opening lap.
This season Alpine and McLaren have been close all season in their fight four fourth in the constructors. Daniel Ricciardo was ninth, finishing two seconds ahead of Lance Stroll who rounded out the top ten Stroll had held off Aston Martin teammate Sebastian Vettel on the last lap.
The battle between the two teammates went down to the final corner when the two appeared to hit each other when Stroll appeared to make a slow getaway from the exit of Virage du Post. But there was no effect on their final finishing positions, with Vettel finishing nearly two seconds behind Stroll.
Pierre Gasly finished his home race in twelfth ahead of Alex Albon’s Williams by three seconds. The Alpha Tauri driver made up two places from where he started. Valtteri Bottas brought his Alfa Romeo home fourteenth ahead of Mick Schumacher’s Haas. Guanyu Zhou was the final classified finisher retiring with six laps to go.
Other retirements were Nicolas Latifi, and Kevin Magnussen along with Leclerc and Tsunoda.
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FRENCH GP – Charles Leclerc Beats Max Verstappen By Three Tenths To Take Pole
FRENCH GP – Charles Leclerc Fastest In First Practice Nine Hundredths Ahead Of Max Verstappen
