Max Verstappen takes advantage of another retirement from Charles Leclerc and offers himself a seventh victory

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Jackpot for Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver won his seventh victory of the season in the Grand Prix de France, Sunday July 24, at Le Castellet. Starting in second position behind Charles Leclerc, the Dutchman won ahead of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, taking advantage of an exit from the track by his rival on the 18th lap of the race. With this new success, Max Verstappen, already winner last year in the Var, therefore consolidates his lead in the drivers’ classification, dropping Charles Leclerc to 63 points.

All the planets were however aligned for Leclerc. The Monegasque, who had taken advantage of the work of his teammate Carlos Sainz to take pole position the day before, had managed to keep the lead in the race thanks to a good start. But the peace of mind only lasted for a while. While the Ferrari staff seemed unimpressed with the attempt toundercut of the Red Bull driver in the 17th lap, returned to the pits to put on hard rubber, the Scuderia experienced a disaster scenario: an exit from the track for Leclerc in the eleventh corner of the 18th lap, who finished his race in the protective tires .

The 24-year-old, forced to retire for the third time this season after Baku and Barcelona, ​​expressed his frustration with a cry of rage via his radio as 25 crucial championship points slipped away. “It’s a mistake. I’ll look at the data to be sure. We’ll do the accounts at the end of the season, but if we miss 25 or 30 points, I could only blame myself”underlined Leclerc, very self-critical at the microphone of Canal +.

This abandonment made the business of the world champion. As soon as the race resumed, the Dutchman took matters into his own hands. No one was able to come up against him and he rode in the lead until the end of the Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver is putting a serious option on the title of world champion since he now has a 63-point lead over his direct competitor, Charles Leclerc. Ferrari can console itself with the beautiful 5th place of Carlos Sainz (author of the best time at Le Castellet), who left penultimate after an engine change.

Satisfaction on the other hand on the side of Mercedes, which regains regularity and signs its first double podium of the season. For the 300th race of his career, Hamilton rode the box for the fourth time in a row, his 187th career podium, ahead of team-mate George Russell, who took third place from Sergio Perez on the 51st lap. Fernando Alonso, 6th, and the Habs Esteban Ocon, 8th, leave with a smile from Var.

Thanks to its performance, Alpine scored valuable points in the manufacturer’s classification and stole 4th position from McLaren. Starting in 14th position, the other local of the stage, Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) finished twelfth and did not score a point for this GP of France. Also note the withdrawals of Zhou Guanyu, Nicholas Latifi, Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda, in addition to that of Leclerc, who will have to do better on July 31, in Hungary.


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