Ferrari loses an opportunity to close the season’s gap with Red Bull, but Mercedes gained ground by earning podium spots (Hamilton second and Russell third).
LE CASTELLET, France—Max Verstappen took advantage of a Charles Leclerc spin on lap 11 to easily win the French Grand Prix Sunday afternoon at the Circuit Paul Ricard. He took the victory by 10+ seconds ahead of Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who finished second and third, respectively.
The Dutchman’s victory puts him 63 points ahead of his Monegasque rival in the drivers’ championship, with Red Bull increasing their lead in the constructors by 83.
“I think we had a really good pace from the start,” said Verstappen. “I was putting pressure on Charles [Leclerc] but following around here, with this heat, the tires were overheating a lot, and I could never really go for a move. Only once into Turn 11. We just tried to stay calm and stay close. We pitted a bit earlier, and from there onwards, you never know how the race will go.”
Leclerc had a fine start to the race giving the Ferrari driver an advantage as only himself and Verstappen began to pull away from the field, holding a four-second gap between them and the third-place Hamilton. Verstappen quickly realized that he could not compete with the Ferrari driver and pitted on lap 17, which gave Leclerc more of a further lead. But only one lap later, Leclerc went too wide at turn 11 and spun his Ferrari into the barriers, bringing out the safety car for the first and only time during the race.
This is the third time this season that Leclerc has led a race and then lost because of an error.
The green flag resumed the race on lap 21, and Verstappen found himself back into the lead for the remainder of the race, beating Hamilton, who had more of a lonely race to take second. The real battle was between Russell and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, and the Briton passed Perez dramatically just laps from the finish to take third.
The battle for fourth in the Constructor’s Championship was between Alpine (in their home race) and McLaren. The French team placed Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon sixth and eighth, with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo in seventh and ninth for McLaren.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. was the driver of the day by scoring the quickest lap of the race, despite starting the race from the back of the grid due to a power unit change. He ended up a deserving fifth.
Besides Leclerc, four other drivers retired from the race — Zhou (Alpha Romeo), Latifi (Williams), Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri), and Magnussen (Haas).
Even with a victory, Verstappen realizes that there are still many improvements that have to be done to improve more. “There are plenty more races to come where you have to score points,” he added. “In that aspect, today was a great day. We still have a bit of work to do, over a single lap especially, so we have to keep on working.”
And the next race comes quickly–the Hungarian Grand Prix, which will be run next Sunday. It will be the last race before Formula One’s annual summer break, with racing suspended until teams gather for the Belgian GP on August 26-28.
