Verstappen dominates French Grand Prix following Leclerc crash

Max Verstappen capitalised on a crash for Charles Leclerc, cruising to victory at the 2022 French Grand Prix.

Roasting temperatures and roasting tensions filled the air as the grid prepared for the 2022 French Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen leading the grid once again.

Leclerc led his title rival into turn one while Lewis Hamilton flew into turn one to take third. The Ferrari then focused on building a gap, but soon found a Red Bull car breathing down his neck.

Further behind, Yuki Tsunoda made contact with Esteban Ocon at turn nine, leaving the Japanese driver with damage while Ocon was handed a five-second penalty.

Red Bull held the better straight-line speed while Ferrari were faster through the corners, allowing Verstappen to close in on the straights but not enough to get past into the lead.

As the battle for the lead settled down, and tyre management creeped into play, the first vital pitstop would come for Verstappen on lap 16, pitting for hard tyres.

However, Leclerc would suddenly smash into the barriers, losing his F1-75 at turn 11. The Monegasque screamed over the radio in anger, with perhaps yet another throttle issue hampering his title hopes.

LAP 18/53

CHARLES LECLERC IS OUT OF THE RACE!!!

The Ferrari driver hits the wall at Turn 11!#FrenchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/5SL5xQcmUc

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 24, 2022

Following the race, however, Leclerc would place the blame solely on himself, telling Sky Sports F1:

“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, seven I think was in Imola. 25 here because, honestly, we probably were the strongest car on the track today.

“So yeah, if we lose the championship by 32 points at the end of the season, I will know from where they are coming from, and it’s unacceptable.”

This brought out the safety car, with Verstappen able to beat Hamilton into the lead of the race while the Briton pitted. The race would restart on lap 2o and Verstappen would soon begin to pull away from the rest of the field.

To make a difficult day worse for Ferrari, Carlos Sainz was handed a five-second penalty for an unsafe pit release. The Spaniard started at the back of the grid following engine penalties, working his way into the top-five following his teammate’s crash.

Despite this, he would continue charging through the pack, flying around the outside of George Russell, soon setting his sights on Sergio Perez in third. After debating strategy with his engineers, Sainz’s chase would come to an end, battling with Perez throughout the final sector.

Bizarrely, as the battle ensued, Ferrari would tell their driver to pit much to the anger of their driver. Eventually, the move would be done, and Ferrari would briefly stand on the podium before Sainz pit for medium tyres.

It was then Russell’s turn to try and overtake Perez in an attempt to join his teammate on the podium. Unlike Sainz, the two would briefly collide, leaving the Mercedes driver irate with the stewards’ decision to take no action.

With four laps to go, Zhou Guanyu would park his Alfa Romeo on the side of the road following a mechanical issue, bringing out the VSC. This would end quickly and Russell’s quick reactions allowed him to jump Perez and make his way into third.

But up ahead, nobody could touch Verstappen who cruised home to take his seventh victory of 2022. Speaking about the race to David Coulthard, he said:

“I think we had really good pace from the start and I was putting pressure on Charles [Leclerc]. Following around here with this heat, the tyres are overheating a lot so I could never really go for a move, only once into turn 11.

“We just tried to stay calm, tried to stay close. Of course, we pitted a bit earlier and from there onwards you never know how the race is going to go but the car was quick today.

“Unlucky for Charles, I hope he’s okay. From there onwards, I just did my race and looked after the tyres. Because of the pitlane being so long, you couldn’t do another stop so you had to stay out but the tyres were wearing a lot.

“So, it was all just about looking after the tyres until the end.”

With one race left to go before the summer break, Verstappen leads Leclerc by 63 points as Formula 1 heads to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

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