Picture Credit: Twitter
Red Bull's Max Verstappen registered a dramatic win in the French GP 2022 on Sunday. While Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was leading after starting on pole, he crashed out of the race. This was the third time in the season that Leclerc was forced to retire from a race after taking a lead. Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton came second while his teammate George Russell came third.
Ever since Verstappen took the lead after Leclerc crashed out, no one else came close to overtaking the Red Bull racer. The other close fight was for the third and the fourth position with Russell managing to take the third position only with a few laps to go before eventually making it a second and third finish for Mercedes.
French GP: Top 10
1. Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
3. George Russell, Mercedes
4. Sergio Perez, Red Bull
5. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
6. Fernando Alonso, Alpine
7. Lando Norris, McLaren
8. Esteban Ocon, Alpine
9. Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren
10. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
“We’ll add things up at the end of the season, but if we’re 25 or 30 points short at the season I can only blame myself,” Leclerc said after Ferrari's flop show with teammate Carlos Sainz also finishing fifth. “I couldn’t go into reverse, but those are small details. You just can’t put a car into the wall.”
Notably, Sainz, at one stage, had managed to pass both Russell and Perez but it was at this stage with just 10 laps to go that his team instructed him to pit for new tyres.
“Come on, guys, I can’t believe you told me to box then,” Sainz was heard saying. “I don’t know why we boxed…I don’t understand.”
Meanwhile, Verstappen too reacted after the race.
"Of course, unlucky for Charles. [I] hope he's okay. From there (Charles' crash) onwards, I just did my race, looked after the tyres," he said.
"Because [with] the pit lane 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 about just looking after the tyres," he stated.
After all the action at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Formula 1 will now head to the Hungarian Grand Prix.