Max Verstappen claimed his seventh win of the season at the 2022 Formula 1 French Grand Prix last Sunday after Charles Leclerc lost control of his car and crashed while leading the race.
The Monegasque driver took pole at the wheel of his Ferrari and had held the lead by just over a second over Verstappen before Red Bull called the Dutchman into the pits towards the end of lap 16.
Those from Maranello made the decision to keep Leclerc on the track, but on lap 18 and after a driver error, he ended up hitting the protections, which caused the appearance of a safety car that resumed the race with Verstappen leading ahead by Lewis Hamilton.
The Dutchman managed his tires well to finish the race without returning to the pits, crossing the checkered flag 10 seconds ahead of the Mercedes driver. The victory made his advantage in the world championship increase from the 38 with which he reached Paul Ricard to the 63 points with which he will arrive in Hungary, a difference of more than two victories with 10 races remaining to reach the end of the campaign. .
“It’s still very important to always score as many points as possible, even on a bad day, like we already did in Austria,” Verstappen said.
“Of course the lead we have is great, but it’s probably a bit bigger than it should be if you look at the performance of both cars.
The reigning F1 world champion admitted he thought Leclerc would be quicker during the first stint of the race and might even break away, but finding he could keep up with him motivated him.
“I could quickly see that the balance of our car was not bad, but he could also be managing a bit,” he said. “It seemed like we were very competitive, but that’s what we see, we didn’t have all the data.”
Verstappen acknowledged his gap to Leclerc was “a big advantage” but also warned “a lot can happen” after seeing his 46-point deficit to the Monegasque driver earlier in the season quickly turned around.
The result also allowed Red Bull to extend its advantage at the head of the constructors’ championship, where they currently have a difference of 82 points over Ferrari , despite the fact that Sergio Pérez was left off the podium due to a Race Direction error with the Virtual Safety Car.
Red Bull principal Christian Horner praised his team’s work in adapting to the new regulations despite the intense battle for the 2021 title, acknowledging that current results and points advantages are “beyond my wildest expectations.” “.
“This is a testament to the determination, dedication and hard work that has gone into behind the scenes inside the factory,” said Horner .
“We have seen that Ferrari is very competitive this year as well. We have seen that Mercedes is slowly coming back. But considering that we were surely the last team to focus on our 2022 car, I can say that an incredible job has been done.” .
Horner explained that Verstappen could also have won the race even if Leclerc hadn’t made a mistake, as he had more speed and the aim was always to make a single stop after seeing less tire degradation than expected.
“We stopped as soon as we saw it was safe to do one stop as the tire degradation was less than we expected for this race, to be honest,” said Horner.
“The strategy at the beginning was two [stops]. As the race went on, we started leaning towards one stop, and we saw a gap in the track where we could get Max into.
“We called him in the middle of that same lap, at that point he had track position, so from there it was just a matter of taking good care of the tyres.”
Had Leclerc not crashed, Horner believes Verstappen would have been “able to defend quite comfortably” thanks to Red Bull ‘s straight-line speed advantage in the second sector, but admitted it was “very, very tight between the two of us.” teams,” he concluded.
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