Max Verstappen, the reigning world champion, took full advantage of the fact that Charles Leclerc crashed out of the lead position to expand his lead in this year’s title battle. He won the French Grand Prix with a crushing win ahead of Lewis Hamilton on a sun-drenched Sunday.
The 24-year-old Dutchman drove with faultless control in the blistering heat to take his Red Bull home 10.587 seconds ahead of Hamilton, who was competing in his 300th race. George Russell, driving the second Mercedes, defeated Sergio Perez, driving the other Red Bull, for third place.
It was Verstappen’s seventh win this season and the 27th of his career, dealing Leclerc’s challenge in the opening race of the second half of the season a significant blow.

Verstappen is now in first place in the driver standings, 63 points ahead of Leclerc after 12 of the season’s 22 races.

“We had fantastic pace, but it was difficult to follow here with the tyres overheating, so we kept quiet,” Verstappen added. “We stayed calm since we had a decent pace.”

“You can never predict how things are going to turn out… Charles had a string of bad luck, but thankfully he remains unharmed despite it all.”

Perez finished in fourth place, ahead of a charging Carlos Sainz. Sainz drove for Ferrari and started from the back of the line, but he overtook Fernando Alonso of Alpine and Lando Norris of McLaren to take fifth place overall.

Esteban Ocon finished seventh in the second Alpine, which was better than McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll’s performance.

Hamilton was overjoyed to finish in second place.

“It was a challenging race since my drinks bottle didn’t work so it was a wonderful result for us, particularly given we’re so far off the pace,” he added. “It was a terrific result for us, especially considering we’re so far off the pace.” “The team’s dependability was outstanding, and George delivered an outstanding performance.”

On a scorching afternoon, the track temperature was 52 degrees and the air temperature was 34 when the race began. Leclerc made a clean start to take the lead into the first corner ahead of Verstappen, and Hamilton leapt clear of Perez to take third place. The track temperature was 52 degrees and the air temperature was 34.

After the first lap, Leclerc had a one-second lead over Sainz, who was starting from the bottom of the grid. On the first lap, Yuki Tsunoda had a spin but was able to recover. Sainz started his charge from the back of the field.

Due to his better straight-line speed, Verstappen was able to get close to Leclerc’s Ferrari at the end of the Mistral Straight; nonetheless, the leader maintained his position, despite the fact that his vehicle struggled to maintain traction in the intense heat.

After holding off early challenges from Verstappen, Leclerc had built up a nine-tenths advantage by the 13th lap of the race.

On lap 14, Sainz moved up to tenth place, earning plaudits from Ferrari for his progress.

At the front of the pack, Leclerc picked up the tempo, which allowed him to pull ahead by 1.7 seconds by lap 15, when the temperature of the track was measured at 55 degrees.

Ferrari redirected their attention back to tyre wear and strategy and informed Leclerc, “We are developing Plan B.”

On lap 17, Verstappen made his pit stop in 2.4 seconds and resumed the race in seventh place. While Leclerc was coming back, Ferrari sent him a warning that his tyres were overheating, but he still maintained a 10-second lead over Hamilton, with Perez in third place, three seconds behind Hamilton.

However, Leclerc stayed out and eventually crashed at Le Beausset on lap 18, slamming hard into the tyre barrier. Verstappen was able to quickly pass Norris for a sixth place once he had done so.

Despite the collision speed of around 175 kilometres per hour, he was able to get out of the vehicle seemingly unharmed.

Leclerc, who was visibly upset, yelled that he was having trouble with the throttle. It was his third time losing the lead this season, and it came at a time when he appeared to be capable of leading Ferrari to their third straight victory.

After Hamilton made his pit stop, the safety car was activated, and Verstappen took the lead.

Leclerc eventually came from the garage and admitted that he was to blame for the collision.

His words were, “It was a mistake, and it was mine.” “I was putting too much pressure on myself, and I ended up losing the rear.”

After a flawless restart, Verstappen took the lead of the race from Hamilton and Perez, while Sainz moved up to the sixth place. After that, a penalty of five seconds was handed down to the Spaniard for a dangerous release from his pit stop.

At the end of lap 34, Verstappen was leading Hamilton by 6.499 seconds, while Perez was in third place, 1.475 seconds behind. However, several tyres were beginning to develop blisters, most notably Sainz’s front right tyre after he had passed Russell for fourth place.

As there were still 15 laps to go, it caused complications for the pit wall crew of the Italian team as well as for other crews.

Sainz, who was frustrated and in fourth place, requested Ferrari for new tyres. Ferrari responded by telling Sainz to go for Plan D, then to stay out of the pits, and ultimately, in the middle of passing Perez, to come in.

“Not now!” yelled the Spaniard after he had worked his way up to the third place and was about to make his pit stop on lap 43 to get new tyres and serve his penalty.

For some inexplicable reason, it appeared like Ferrari had, squandered away a good opportunity to finish third. Meanwhile, Russell and Perez were vying for the final slot on the podium.