Verstappen took victory after Leclerc crashed into the Beausset double-peak corner, and he finished more than 10 seconds clear of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton – starting his 300th Grand Prix – and George Russell.
Results of the 2022 French Grand Prix
How was the French Grand Prix
Leclerc maintained his pole advantage in the race at Turn 1, ahead of Verstappen, Hamilton, Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and a fast-starting Fernando Alonso (Alpine). The latter’s teammate, Esteban Ocon, pushed Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri into a spin at the North Chicane on the first lap, earning him a 5 second time penalty.
Verstappen entered Leclerc’s DRS range at the start of Lap 4 and stalked him for the lead on Lap 6. After closing in but unable to pass the Beausset, Verstappen stopped attacking and returned to stalking his title rival.
Verstappen blinked first and stopped at the end of lap 16 but Leclerc failed to respond and stayed away. It became irrelevant when he lost control of the rear of his car, spun and crashed into the tire wall two laps later at Le Beausset, causing a safety car .
Verstappen took the lead, ahead of Hamilton, Perez, Russell and Alonso – all of whom pulled up under the safety car. From the back of the grid, Sainz quickly climbed to sixth place after the restart, despite a terribly slow pit stop and being released into the path of a Williams – for which he received a time penalty 5 seconds.
Sainz passed Russell for fourth outside Signes on lap 31, while Hamilton ran wide at Turn 2 and was now more than 6 seconds behind Verstappen, who was riding in front.
Sainz passed Perez for third with a big lunge on the final corner, just as Ferrari told him to pull over. Perez was then attacked by Russell, with the pair clashing at the North Chicane forcing Perez to continue straight. The stewards decided it was a racing incident, despite complaints from Russell to the contrary.
Sainz started from third with 10 laps to go, dropping him to ninth. On fresh mediums, he quickly stormed into fifth position by putting in a series of fastest laps.
A late-race virtual safety car for Zhou Guanyu’s stalled Alfa Romeo put Russell ahead of Perez and he grabbed third place with three laps to go.
Behind Sainz, Alonso finished sixth ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. Ocon passed Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) away from Signes in the closing stages to finish eighth. Lance Stroll scored the final point for Aston Martin, just ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Zhou sent Mick Schumacher (Haas) into a spin, earning him a 5 second time penalty. More drama played Haas’ Kevin Magnussen clashing with Nicholas Latifi’s Williams, spinning the latter – and Magnussen dropped out a round later.
