French GP: Verstappen claims victory as Leclerc crashes out

Max Verstappen took a major step towards retaining his Formula 1 championship with victory at the French Grand Prix.

The Dutchman wasn’t able to pass Charles Leclerc early on, but he wouldn’t need to as the Monegasque crashed out from the lead for the third time this season.

That left the pathway clear for Verstappen to take the win ahead of the two Mercedes’ as Lewis Hamilton finished second in his 300th race.

Race Review

Leclerc kept the lead from Verstappen at the start as Lewis Hamilton jumped up to third ahead of Sergio Perez.

A poor start for Lando Norris dropped him down to seventh as Fernando Alonso briefly ran fourth before slipping to sixth.

Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda tangled on the chicane along the Mistral Straight, with the AlphaTauri spun around.

Kevin Magnussen made a great start from the back of the grid up to 13th while Carlos Sainz was more conservative coming through the field.

Verstappen applied early pressure on Leclerc for the lead but couldn’t quite stay close enough to attempt an overtake.

The Ferrari driver then weathered the early storm as the race settled into a tyre management phase with the two Haas’ and Zhou Guanyu the only drivers to pit early.

Verstappen was the first of the leaders to pit before drama as Leclerc spun off into the barrier at Le Beausset and out of the race.

A subsequent Safety Car triggered tyre changes for the rest with Max taking the lead ahead of Hamilton and Perez.

Carlos Sainz switched to Mediums compared to those around on Hard tyres and swiftly got up to fifth when the race resumed.

However, the Spaniard was given a five-second penalty for a clear unsafe release at his pit stop.

Fifth then became fourth as Sainz swept passed George Russell through Signes. Ahead, a mistake from Hamilton at Turn 2 saw Max’s lead grow to seven seconds at the front.

In the midfield, Alpine and McLaren, level on points in the Constructors’ Championship, ran from P6 to P9 as Lance Stroll completed the top 10.

Down the field, the two Haas’ were involved in collisions as Mick Schumacher was spun around by Zhou Guanyu at Le Beausset and Kevin Magnussen retired after an incident with Nicholas Latifi at Turn 2.

At the front, Sainz continued his charge with a nice pass on Sergio Perez for third. But Ferrari would then pit him a lap later fearing his tyres wouldn’t last to the end.

That left Perez and Russell to fight for the final podium place, with the pair narrowly avoiding contact as the Mercedes dived down the inside into the chicane.

George would regroup and capitalised on a late Virtual Safety Car to catch Checo napping at the restart to jump ahead into third.

Ahead, Verstappen was untroubled as he claimed victory by over 10 seconds from Hamilton in second as Mercedes scored their first double podium of the season.

Perez was fourth followed by Sainz, who was left to rue another questionable strategy call by Ferrari.

In the midfield, Alpine got the better of McLaren in their home race as Fernando Alonso took sixth ahead of Lando Norris and Esteban Ocon passed Daniel Ricciardo in eighth and ninth.

The two Aston Martins battled for the last point in 10th, with Stroll beating Sebastian Vettel after the German hit the back of his teammate exiting the final corner.

Pierre Gasly was a frustrating 12th in his home race in front of Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas and Mick Schumacher the final finisher in 15th.

Full results from the race can be seen below: