Max Verstappen extended his World Championship lead to sixty-three points, after claiming back-to-back victories at the French Grand Prix. The Dutchman replicated his 2021 victory at the Circuit Paul Ricard, with a dominant display once title-rival Charles Leclerc crashed out.
Verstappen ran behind Leclerc in the opening phase of the Grand Prix, resulting in the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver attempting an undercut on his Scuderia Ferrari rival. However, shortly after pitting, Leclerc made an error and span into the wall on the exit of Turn Eleven. This led to the Monegasque driver’s retirement, giving Verstappen a simple cruise to yet another 2022 win.
The reigning World Champion was very happy with his win, but was disappointed not to have had the chance to battle with his rival.
“We had really good pace from the start, although following around here, the tyres overheated a lot so I couldn’t really go for a move but I stayed calm and stayed close. It was really unlucky for Charles and I’m glad he’s okay, it could have been a really fun race because both cars were so quick! From there I just concentrated on my own race and looked after the tyres.
“The pit lane is so long here so that prevented us from having another pit stop. Today was a great day but there are plenty more races ahead of us and I just always aim for the most points possible, the fight is nowhere near over.”
“I was off the pace” – Sergio Pérez
It was a disappointing Grand Prix for Sergio Pérez, who failed to capitalise on Leclerc’s retirement and even managed to miss out on a podium finish. The Mexican fell to fourth from the lights out, after Lewis Hamilton made his way past the Red Bull driver on the rundown to Turn One.
The Mexican driver then ran in third when Leclerc retired from the race, before getting involved in a battle with Carlos Sainz Jr and George Russell. Sainz was forced into another pit-stop by Ferrari, resulting in a battle for the rostrum between Pérez and Russell.
At Russell’s initial attack, the pair made contact; however, the British driver later caught Pérez napping, and managed to overtake the Mexican driver after the VSC for Guanyu Zhou‘s stricken C42 came to an end. With the overtake happening in the closing laps, Pérez had insufficient time to mount his own attack, leaving him to finish in fourth.
Pérez admitted that he was “off the pace” during the race, and wished he “could have pushed for a one-two”.
“It was a difficult one out there today, I was off the pace and unfortunately wasn’t able to get the podium we wanted. I struggled with tyre management and it was tough to get on top of it. I had a close battle with George but it was a good one, I wish we could have pushed for a 1-2 but Mercedes were very strong and it was difficult to overtake them. There are some bits for us to analyse and hopefully I will recover my pace and come back stronger for Hungary.”
