French Grand Prix: Verstappen – Hamilton – Russell

Sunny. Dry. Air +30С, route +54…55С

The French weekend in 2022 was accompanied by an unprecedented heat wave for the region, with the hottest day of racing. Authorities have declared an “orange” level of danger. Racers, cars and countless fans – the stands were completely filled, it was not easy.

Tires were again an important factor. Pirelli confirmed that they have only worked on even hotter road surfaces once – in Malaysia’16. The rubber was hard to get into work mode and even harder to keep it in, the tires overheated, started granulating and lost efficiency.

Red Bull has tuned the cars for less downforce, which means the tires warmed up longer but wore out less. Ferrari pushed the car harder and was at the top of protocol on Friday. On Saturday morning, Verstappen was faster and Leclerc won qualifying – partner Sainz helped him with a slipstream. Sainz could have easily sacrificed his lap – after switching the power plant, he and Magnussen started from the last row.

Tire manufacturers brought the “medium” trio of compositions – compositions C2, C3 and C4 were used as Hard, Medium and Soft. In the race Bottas, Gasly and Sainz started on Hard, the rest opted for Medium.

Leclerc kept the lead at the start. Hamilton overtook Perez for third. Tsunoda, battling Okon, turned around at the chicane of turn eight, but he kept moving. Okon was given a five-second penalty. Stroll won five positions at the start, Magnussen – seven.

Top ten in the second round: Leclerc – Verstappen – Hamilton – Perez – Alonso – Russell – Norris – Ricciardo – Ocon – Stroll.

Verstappen and Leclerc traded the best laps, Max was five tenths behind, but the speed difference was not enough to attack. Just behind them, Perez was unable to overtake Hamilton.

On lap 5, Russell was ahead of Alonso in the battle for fifth and Sainz – Schumacher for 14th.

On lap 8, Sainz caught up with Elbon and Magnussen to move up to 12th place.

Perez was left behind Hamilton, and Verstappen put pressure on Leclerc for a few more laps before he also fell behind. The first four stretched out.

On lap 9, Magnussen switched tires, on lap 10 Schumacher and Zhou, on lap 12 Tsunoda,

Sainz passed Vettel and Stroll and moved up to tenth.

On lap 15, the pack was so stretched that none of the riders could use the DRS.

On lap 16, Verstappen made a pit stop and returned to the track in seventh.

On lap 17 Sainz passed Ricciardo for ninth and Verstappen overtook Norris for sixth.

On lap 18, Charles Leclerc had an accident, where his car crashed after a u-turn. For the third time this season, Leclerc withdrew from the race leader. Already in the course of the race he said that he had made a mistake.

The safety car drove away. The racers went into the pits for fresh tires.

Top ten behind the safety car: Verstappen – Hamilton – Perez – Russell – Alonso – Norris – Ricciardo – Sainz – Ocon – Stroll.

After Sainz’s pit stop, Ferrari released him unsafely in the pit lane just in front of Albon’s passing car – Carlos was given a five-second penalty.

Tsunoda stopped the car in the pits and retired.

In the 21st round, a restart was announced. Verstappen kept the lead. Sainz overtook Ricciardo and Norris and moved up to seventh.

On lap 22 Sainz overtook Alonso for sixth.

On lap 23, battling Zhou, Schumacher turned around. Mick drove on and Guanyu drove into the pits, changed tires and nose cone and was then given a five second penalty.

Top ten in round 26: Verstappen – Hamilton – Perez – Russell – Sainz – Alonso – Norris – Ricciardo – Ocon – Stroll.

On lap 28, Bottas overtook Gasly, who made a braking error. On lap 29, Magnussen overtook Gasly.

On lap 30 Sainz overtook Russell for fourth.

On lap 37, Gasly overtook Magnussen for 14th. Bottas switched tires.

Latifi flew out into the second corner after colliding with Magnussen, both riders turned into the pits – Kevin dropped out of the race.

On lap 39 Vettel overtook Elbon for 11th place.

On lap 41 Sainz caught up with Perez in the battle for third place – and turned into the pits, where he handed out a penalty and changed tyres. Carlos returned to the track in ninth.

On lap 43, Latifi stopped the car in the pits and pulled out.

On lap 44 Sainz overtook Ocon and Ricciardo to move up to seventh.

Top ten in round 45: Verstappen – Hamilton – Perez – Russell – Alonso – Norris – Sainz – Riccardo – Ocon – Stroll.

On lap 46 Sainz overtook Norris for sixth. Ocon passed Riccardo in eighth.

On lap 47, Gasly caught up with Albon to move up to 12th place.

On lap 48 Sainz overtook Alonso for fifth.

On lap 49, Zhou pulled the car off the track due to power plant problems. The race directorate announced a virtual safety car mode, Alfa Romeo was quickly evacuated.

On lap 51 a restart was announced, Perez hesitated and Russell was ahead of him in the battle for third. They kept fighting until the finish, but the positions remained the same.

Max Verstappen won the French Grand Prix with his seventh win of the season, his 27th in his career, extending his lead over Charles Leclerc to 63 points. Lewis Hamilton climbed to the second step of the podium for the first time this season, George Russell finished third.

Next week we already see the Hungarian Grand Prix – the last race before the summer break.

Race results

* added five seconds to Zhou’s result for the Mick Schumacher incident

best lapTime: Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) – 1:35.781 (51 laps, 219.575 km/h)

Reasons for leaving

Championship position : Individual

Championship position : Constructors’ Championship

Team		engine	Glasses
=	1 Red Bull Racing	Red Bull powertrains	396
=	2 Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	314
=	3. Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	270
	4 Alpine F1 Team	Renault	93
	5 McLaren Racing	Mercedes	89
=	6. Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN	Ferrari	51
=	7 Haas F1 Team	Ferrari	34
=	8 Scuderia Alpha Tauri	Red Bull powertrains	27
=	9. Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	Mercedes	19
=	10 Williams Racing	Mercedes	3