Red Bull’s Max Verstappen extended his title lead with a dominant victory at 2022 French Grand Prix.
Pole-sitter, Charles Leclerc fended off an early charge from Verstappen until he spun out on Lap 18, which left Verstappen to cruise to a dominant victory ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who had leapfrogged Sergio Perez at the start on his 300th F1 start.
George Russell rounded out the podium after making a late pass on Perez on Lap 50 to take third, whilst Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz recovered from 19th on the grid to finish fifth ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris.
Home favourite, Esteban Ocon completed his home race in eighth place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll, who rounded out the top ten finishers.
In the driver standings, Verstappen continues to lead the championship as he extended his title lead over Leclerc to 63 points, following the Monegasque’s retirement from the race.
At lights out, Leclerc made a clean start to lead from Verstappen as Hamilton leapfrogged Perez into third, whilst Alonso swept past Russell and Norris on the inside of Turn 1 to claim fifth, although Russell demoted the Spaniard within the opening five laps.
Up front, Leclerc fought off a rapid charge from Verstappen with a stubborn defence until the Dutchman pitted at the end of Lap 16.
Leclerc however decided to stay out too long as he lost rear grip at Beausset on Lap 18 which caused him to spin off into the barriers on top of a throttle issue, which in turn triggered a Safety Car.
Hamilton briefly inherited the lead until he pitted at the end of that very lap to hand the race lead to Verstappen.
Sainz meanwhile began the race from 19th and after a cautious start found himself ninth when the Safety Car was deployed, although he picked up a five-second time penalty after he was unsafely released from his medium-tyre pit stop on Lap 19
The race resumed at the end of Lap 20 with Verstappen sprinting away from Hamilton unchallenged to a seventh Grand Prix victory of the season, as the Brit calmly managed his tyres to the checkered flag.
Perez meanwhile struggled to handle the tyre degradation on his hard tyres whilst Sainz quickly worked his way up to fifth within two laps of the restart, before passing Russell round the outside of Signes on Lap 30 for fourth.
Sainz’s sprint saw him climb to third with a final corner move on Perez at the end of Lap 41 with the latter then colliding with Russell a lap later at Montreal chicane, which caused Russell to complain that he should of conceded position to no avail as his pleas for a position swap were denied.
Ferrari meanwhile pitted Sainz at the end of Lap 42 which dropped the Spaniard to ninth as he re-joined the circuit, although he recovered to sixth by the end of Lap 45 before clearing Alonso on Lap 47 for fifth.
Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou stopped at Turn 5 on Lap 50 with a mechanical issue which caused a brief Virtual Safety Car, from which Perez was caught napping on the restart as Russell swept past to finish third despite a late fightback from the Mexican as Mercedes claimed a first double podium of season.
Sainz finished fifth ahead of Alonso, Norris, Ocon, Ricciardo and Stroll who snatched the final point in tenth, following a last corner collision with Aston Martin teammate, Sebastian Vettel who finished just behind in 11th place.
F1 now heads to Hungary next weekend from 29-31 July for the final round of the opening half of the season, ahead of the summer break.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 53 | 1h 30m 02.112 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 53 | + 10.587 |
| 3 | George Russell | Mercedes | 53 | + 16.495 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 53 | + 17.310 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 53 | + 28.872 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 53 | + 42.879 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 53 | + 52.026 |
| 8 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 53 | + 56.959 |
| 9 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 53 | + 60.372 |
| 10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 53 | + 62.549 |
| 11 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 53 | + 64.494 |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 53 | + 65.448 |
| 13 | Alex Albon | Williams | 53 | + 68.565 |
| 14 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 53 | + 76.666 |
| 15 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 53 | + 80.394 |
| RET | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 47 | Mechanical |
| RET | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 40 | Collision |
| RET | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 37 | Collision |
| RET | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 17 | Damage |
| RET | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 17 | Spin |
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