By Joe Murphy
It’s becoming an unassailable lead at the top of the tree for Max Verstappen, as the Dutchman yet again capitalised on mishaps at Ferrari to win. This time it was for the French Grand Prix, making it a victory at this venue for the second time in a row. Let’s unpick all the action…
Calm. Collected. Composed. Verstappen.
Max Verstappen showed a combination of expert technique and patience to secure another win to extend his lead at the top of the championship standings. He waited for Charles Leclerc to make an error and pounced perfectly when he did so, winning the race comfortably when all was said and done. I may have written a piece at the start of this campaign doubting his credentials to win back to back titles, but as it stands it’s very much Max’s to lose. Red Bull also have one hand on the constructors championship, showcasing a similar pace to Ferrari but a reliability the Red Team could only dream of at the moment.
Ferrari have more questions to answer…
Let’s be fair, the stretegy played only a minor part in Charles Leclerc’s downfall in France. He admitted his mistake in throwing away a much needed win and could hardly blame the team for his spin, despite older tyres. However, calling in Carlos Sainz when he was side by side with Sergio Perez was a boneheaded move that made the team look like amateurs and, possibly worse, clowns. The pit stop denied the Spaniard a podium but, his tyres may have needed to be changed to avoid a puncture. That, we can forgive Ferrari for. Their timing, however, was nothing short of shambolic. Despite having a much faster car than Mercedes, it speaks volumes that the reigning constructors champions are right on the tail of the prancing horses. It’s the naivety that will ultimately cost the team in their pursuit of both honours.
Double Joy for the Merc boys…
Lewis Hamilton excelled expectations with a 2nd place finish this past weekend, whereas teammate George Russell timed his restart to the late VSC to absolute perfection to steal the final podium position from Sergio Perez. Whilst the Mexican had an extremely underwhelming weekend in his quest to close the gap to his teammate, the British pair achieved better results than either could have hoped for following an average qualifying result. The Silver Arrows have been the most consistent outfit this term, and this has kept them within arms distance of Red Bull and even less of Ferrari. Mercedes are not ‘back’, and still have a long way to go in terms of pace, but Toto Wolff and Co will be determined to bring back former glories on a more consistent basis. Results such as we saw at Paul Ricard, are a great starting point.
Fantastic Fernando shines in the Alpine as the French team pip McLaren…
The midfield battle saw something of a four way sandwich over the course of the afternoon this past Sunday. Fernando Alonso and Estaban Ocon battled Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris for those precious points with the former pair taking the lion share. Fernando finished sixth, just ahead of Lando as Estaban made sure his Alpine car was also ahead of an orange one as he narrowly defeated the Australian Ricciardo for P8. This result moved the team FKA Renault up to P4 in the Constructors Championship, at the expense of McLaren themselves. It seems like these two teams are the favourites to battle it out to finish directly behind the supposed ‘big three’ teams. It will be interesting to see how McLaren bounce back in Hungary, in just a few days time.
A word on Lance…
It was his fourth P10 finish of the season as the young Canadian just about held off his rather more experienced teammate Sebastian Vettel, who had to settle for a pointless eleventh place finish. It’s not a spectacular result, but points have been hard to come by for the Aston Martin team, who just so happened to be celebrating 100 years in the sport during this race. They remain just shy of the tallies of the likes of Alfa Romeo, Haas and Alpha Tauri, but will surely be hoping the second half of the season is kinder to them. The odd point here or there won’t hurt their chances. As for Budapest, a podium finish at last year’s Hungaroring race perhaps gives the green team something to cling on to ahead of the final race before the summer break.
WHEEL2WHEEL REPORTS 