Max Verstappen’s victory at Paul Ricard could well be, to date, the most important of the 2022 season. The current world champion, in fact, took advantage of the abandonment of Charles Leclerc to achieve a victory that unbalanced the fight for the title .
In the early stages of the race, when he was less than a second behind Ferrari’s Monegasque, he put pressure on him without risking too much and when the Scuderia driver made a mistake on lap 18 and went straight into the wall, he took it upon himself to manage the tires to achieve victory.
With this victory, Verstappen has further increased his lead in the drivers’ standings, more specifically, the Dutchman now has 233 points in his locker, while Leclerc , after his zero in this French GP, is stuck in 177.
“We had a good pace from the start and I tried to put pressure on Charles [Leclerc],” said the Red Bull Dutchman analyzing the first part of the grand prix.
After seeing that he could not overtake on the track, the current F1 world champion emphasized tire management and the importance of staying calm despite the fact that his car was significantly faster than the Monegasque’s F1-75.
“Following another car in these temperatures, with the tires so hot, is not the best thing. I tried to overtake him at turn 11, but it was difficult, so I kept calm and stayed close. We moved our stop a little bit, but never it is known how the race will develop,” he said.
Max Verstappen also admitted that after the Leclerc incident everything was easier and the priority was focused on extending the life of the tires in order to avoid having to make a second stop.
“Our car was fast today. Charles was unlucky and I hope he’s fine, but from then on I just did my race managing the tyres. With such a long pit lane it was impossible to make two stops and the tires were wearing out. a lot. We had to keep the tires under control until the end.”
The Verstappen of this French GP is far from the aggressive driver that we have seen in recent years. A change of mentality born of experience. For what is this?
“I just try to get the best possible result. Sometimes you have to realize that you can’t always go to the maximum, but you have to wait to see how the race develops and that’s what I did. There are still many grand prix and we have to get the maximum points. In that sense, it was a great day”, concluded the Dutchman.
Do you want to read our news before anyone else and for free? Follow us here on our Telegram channel and you won’t miss a thing. All the information, at your fingertips!
