Verstappen crowns his race to catch up on the penultimate lap
Stand: 5:37 p.m.
Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton shortly before the end
What: REUTERS
Max Verstappen messes up right in the first corner of the French GP. For a long time Lewis Hamilton looks like the sure winner. But then the Dutchman races up – and continues to expand his World Cup lead.
In the mad hunt of France, Max Verstappen took his World Cup opponent Lewis Hamilton by surprise and expanded his Formula 1 lead. After a tactical stroke of genius, the Dutchman grabbed victory in the Red Bull on Sunday in Le Castellet with an overtaking maneuver on the penultimate lap. Hamilton had to admit defeat after a long lead and only crossed the finish line in second for the first time on this route. In the overall standings, Verstappen now has a twelve point lead. Third was the Mexican Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull.
Sebastian Vettel found himself back in the gray midfield after his last second place in Baku this time, but scored two more championship points as ninth in the Aston Martin. Mick Schumacher gained further experience as the penultimate in the losing Haas.
In the two races after Formula 1 returned to the Circuit Paul Ricard, Mercedes had dominated at will. Hamilton won from pole position in 2018 and 2019. In the previous year, the French Grand Prix was canceled due to the corona pandemic. This time, 15,000 spectators were allowed to attend every day – and they saw that Hamilton in particular could not keep up with Verstappen in training and qualification. Team boss Toto Wolff called the second starting place for Hamilton, which was only possible thanks to a complete conversion of the Silver Arrow, “a black eye”.
Mick Schumacher is passed on quickly
Shortly after the start, however, Verstappen gave away his hard-earned advantage on the track, which Red Bull traditionally lacks. In the first corner, the 23-year-old lost control of his car, lurched next to the track and had to let Hamilton pass. In horror, the Red Bull crew dropped their clapping hands in the garage.
Not much changed after that. Bottas started the pursuit in third, Sergio Perez struggled to catch up with the top trio in fourth in the second Red Bull. Given the few opportunities to overtake on the unusually colorful track not far from the Mediterranean, the racing action was initially limited.
Vettel was able to improve by one place to eleventh right from the start. After the strong performances in Monaco and Baku, the Hessian had to fight for points in midfield again this time. For this, the four-time world champion had chosen a different tire tactic, started on the hardest rubber rollers in order to be able to delay his stop longer. So he even worked his way up to fifth place behind the Mercedes and Red Bull before turning off to the garage.
Newcomer Mick Schumacher had been circling at the end of the field for some time. The joy of starting position 15 had already been clouded by an accident in the qualification. In the race he fell behind in the first few kilometers in the defeated Haas and was even overtaken by his Russian team-mate Nikita Masepin in between.
There was also a change of place at the top. Mercedes gambled away with the strategy. So, through an earlier change and a quick lap afterwards, Verstappen was able to pass Hamilton when he came out of the pit lane. “We also don’t know exactly what went wrong,” the command post radioed to the perplexed Hamilton. The series champion furiously tried to attack, closely followed by Botta’s helper.
Bottas clears the way with a mistake
Driven by a fresh engine unit, however, Verstappen held its own against the Mercedes duo. He defended himself nervously against the jostling Hamilton for laps, but that wasn’t tire-friendly. “We can’t keep it up to the end like this, that’s for sure,” the Dutchman told his engineers. Red Bull promptly changed their tactics and brought Verstappen again to change tires.
Now the young star was chasing the two Mercedes drivers. Verstappen was significantly faster on the fresh tires, but there was a long way to go. Then Bottas helped with a mistake. Verstappen took it, in the 45th lap he only had Hamilton in front of him. And indeed, the tactic worked. Shortly before the end, Hamilton could no longer defend himself, Verstappen pulled away and triumphed.
“That was great progress for the World Cup, it will be an exciting season,” said Red Bull driver Verstappen after his third win in the seventh round of the season.
The doggedly fighting Hamilton, however, had to admit defeat after a long lead and summed up. “Max did a great job. We had a few problems the whole weekend. “
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