French GP Race Report: Leclerc Hands Victory to Verstappen
AFrench GP Race Report: Leclerc Hands Victory to Verstappen
Max Verstappen wins the French Grand Prix and cements his championship lead by taking advantage of Charles Leclerc’s crash at the double-apexed Le Beausset corner.
With Leclerc starting from pole and defending against Verstappen, who pitted early to seek the undercut, the two F1 championship contenders appeared to be in for an exciting race at Paul Ricard. But instead, the Monegasque made a costly mistake and crashed out of the lead.
Verstappen won easily, extending his lead over Leclerc in the Formula 1 drivers’ standings to 63 points. Red Bull currently leads the constructors’ standings by 82 points.
Lewis Hamilton had a perfect weekend by making his 300th F1 start and finished in second place – the best result this season. It was the first double podium for Mercedes this season as George Russell snatched third place from Sergio Perez late in the race after a contentious Virtual Safety Car restart.
Carlos Sainz was pitted just as he appeared to be in line to claim third after starting at the back of the grid due to an engine change penalty. However, Ferrari came under fire once more for their latest tactical blunder. The Spaniard finally came in fifth on a difficult day for the Scuderia.
Alpine and McLaren came behind the leading teams, both taking home double points. Lance Stroll was fighting his Aston Martin teammate Sebastian Vettel and succeeded in taking the final point.
Haas and Alfa Romeo had a difficult day due to bad tactical decisions and collisions, which ended in a DNF with a driver from each team. On the first lap, Esteban Ocon touched Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri, causing it to spin, for which he was given a 5 second time penalty. Next, Nicholas Latifi’s Williams and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas collided, the former spun, and Magnussen retired a lap later.
