French GP: Max wins, Charles crashes
Max Verstappen takes a comfortable win at the French GP after Charles lost his rear and crashed. Mercedes made the most of it with Lewis and George getting P2 and P3.
Max points for Max at French GP
Charles LeClerc starting from Pole had a good start to the race. He was ahead in at the first corner and was generally able to hold Max behind despite him being in the DRS zone all the time. It was super hot and the race was all about managing the tyres. So we don’t know if Charles was pushing too much which would cause massive tyre degradation. Max Verstappen unable to get ahead of Charles decides to go for an early pit stop and went back of the grid for the time being.
Ferrari disaster continues
Things were going smooth when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Charles loses his rear. Yes he was pushing his Mediums in the sweltering French heat but you would expect him to keep things in control. French GP is a circuit where there is more than enough space and runway in case you go off the track. The red and blue stripes depicting the French flag are meant to slow down the car. Still the Ferrari luck is such that one snap of the rear and Charles finds himself in the barrier and his race pretty much over.
Ferrari has the fastest car on the grid. They have two top drivers in Charles and Carlos. And yet at every race misfortune – whether internal or external – strikes them somehow. They either have reliability issues with the Engine giving up or they mess up the Strategy like in Monaco, or simply their driver makes one mistake and then are completely out of the race.
Once Charles crashed out it was all managing tyres and bringing the car home for Max. However it was a difficult day for the other Red Bull driver Sergio Perez. The new upgrades brought by Red Bull seems to help Max more. The gap between the two drivers has increased significantly in the last few races. Checo struggled in all the practice and Quali sessions. In the race he couldn’t even keep up or overtake the much slower Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. The other Mercedes driver George Russell kept pushing Checo, inviting him to make any mistake. In the end he made one when he was caught napping as the VSC ended and George zoomed past him, never to look back.
Mercedes making the most
First double podium for Mercedes in 2022 and they sure would be delighted with the result. Mercedes seem to have the porposing issue in control and can finally get back to focusing of the performance. Charles crashed out, Carlos was starting from the back and Checo was struggling. All this meant that Hamilton kept P2 position in his 300th race and George took the last podium position. They still lack the race pace and are approximately 1 sec per lap behind the race leaders Red Bull and Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso was the best of the rest and very impressive with his P6 position. Lando Norris came in P7, Ocon managed a decent P8 in his home race, Danny Ric brought the second McLaren in points too and Stroll just managed to get P10 with his team mate right behind him at P11.
French GP: Max extends his lead by 63 points
