Max Verstappen won the 2022 French Grand Prix for Red Bull after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed out of the race on Lap 18 – walking away unscathed – as the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell completed the podium at Paul Ricard.
Paul Ricard might have been sweltering as the mercury climbed to 35 degrees Celsius, but from lap 19 of 53 in the French Grand Prix last Sunday, Max Verstappen barely had to break a sweat to chalk his seventh victory of the 2022 Formula 1 campaign.
While nearest title rival Charles Leclerc held track position early on after landing pole, the Austrian GP winner bottled the chance to convert it into the spoils when he spun off the road and found a barrier during his attempt to defend against a Red Bull undercut.
On a day when the gap between the two title protagonists could have dropped to 30 points, instead Verstappen heads to Hungary – the final race before the summer break – with a 63-point cushion as the red team and driver squandered another golden opportunity.
Leclerc’s demise did allow Mercedes to capitalise on its stellar reliability record to snatch a double podium, with George Russell grabbing third at the death after a strategic showdown against Sergio Perez – the Mexican enduring one of his poorest rounds this term.
Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz recovered from the back of the grid to fifth place but only after more operational questions were raised by Ferrari’s practice.
It was Verstappen’s seventh win this season and the 27th of his career, and a blow to Leclerc’s challenge in the opening race of the second half of the season.
The 24-year-old Dutchman drove with flawless control in the searing heat to guide his Red Bull home 10.587 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Hamilton, in his 300th race, with George Russell, in the second Mercedes, beating Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull, for third.
After 12 of the 22 races, Verstappen leads Leclerc by 63 points in the drivers’ standings.
Driver of the Day Carlos Sainz started 19th with engine penalties, but with his Ferrari on hard tyres he made it into the top 10 by Lap 14. He pitted for mediums during the Safety Car, but an unsafe release led to him serving a stop-go penalty and pitting again for mediums on Lap 43. He passed the Alpines and McLarens to finish fifth at the chequered flag.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso passed Lando Norris early on and stayed in sixth, ahead of both McLarens for much of the race, holding them up for team mate Esteban Ocon to take P7 off Daniel Ricciardo after the Safety Car restart. McLaren started the afternoon level on points with Alpine but, with Norris finishing seventh and Ricciardo ninth, Alpine move ahead in the standings heading to Hungary.
Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10 having won out in an early battle – and last-lap scrap that threatened to boil over – against 11th-place Aston Martin team mate Sebastian Vettel for the final point.
Pierre Gasly went from hard tyres to mediums in the Safety Car restart and finished 12th, ahead of Alex Albon – the Williams driver eventually losing out to the AlphaTauri.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas finished 14th on a hard-hard-medium strategy, while the Haas of Mick Schumacher was the last of the finishers in P15, the German having been tapped into a spin in an incident with Zhou before the half-way point.
Yuki Tsunoda spun early on having been tapped by Alpine’s Ocon, the AlphaTauri driver becoming the first to retire from the race on Lap 17 with damage.
Kevin Magnussen made it from 20th to 14th after the Safety Car restart, but contact with Williams’ Nicholas Latifi saw the Dane retreat to the pits to retire before Lap 40, Latifi following suit a couple of laps later.
Zhou suffered his fifth retirement of the season, pulling up just off the track to bring out a VSC late in the race.
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