A scream chased the viewers from their sofas in the living rooms on Sunday. A scream, as sharp and shrill as one has seldom heard in Formula 1 pit radio. Even minutes later, one could still ask oneself whether Charles Leclerc wanted to express horror, disbelief or anger with his intoned pain. A “pardon” addressed to one’s own team certainly sounds different.
This departure that Leclerc made with his Ferrari was also too strange Le Beaussetone of the fastest corners on the Circuit Paul Ricard. He had let his Ferrari drift a little too far out, that’s fine. As a result, his rear broke off, his red car flew off, made a 360-degree turn and hit the front of the tire wall. It’s over. Definitely the race. And what was that major setback in the title fight?
Leclerc had so far led the French Grand Prix with confidence, but when he sadly chugged on the seat of a scooter towards the pits after take-off, the way was clear for Max Verstappen’s seventh victory in the twelfth race, which extended his lead over Leclerc to 63 points increased. And the way was clear for second-placed Lewis Hamilton, who brought his silver arrow home ahead of his team-mate George Russell, thus securing what was by far the most successful race result of the year for Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel was eleventh, Mick Schumacher finished 15th.
Leclerc mumbled something that sounded like a technical problem
But what drama for Scuderia Ferrari! Accompanying the scream, Leclerc murmured something difficult to understand over the radio that sounded suspiciously like a problem with the gas pedal. This had already been the case in the previous race in Spielberg, two weeks ago he dragged his victory across the finish line with great difficulty despite jammed pedals. But this time, Leclerc took all the blame. The fact that the car broke out was “a bit strange,” he said on Sky. But then he listed that it was he who had already dropped 32 points this season: seven from a spin at Imola, now 25 in France. “I was trying to push and I lost the rear. That’s unacceptable.”
The dramaturgy of qualifying in France was still determined by the great teamwork of the driver colleagues at Ferrari. With Carlos Sainz it was already clear on Saturday that he would be moved to the end of the starting field because of a newly installed engine, the pursuit of times was of no value to him. But it was not a matter of course that the Scuderia team management managed to convince the Spaniard to selflessly slipstream his team-mate so that he would rush to pole position. Most recently in Spielberg, Sainz and Leclerc fought each other like World Cup rivals in the Saturday sprint. However, it is quite possible that the following day, in the smoke from the blazing engine, all of Sainz’s hopes for the title were committed to the flames. And so he pulled Leclerc over the track in the slipstream this Saturday in the hunt for times and gave him the best time, even if the Monegasque afterwards thought he could have set the fastest lap without the help.
The air in Le Castellet shimmered at temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, the track was loaded with more than 60 degrees. Tire management would decide this Grand Prix, that was clear early on Sunday. “What’s the point of overtaking Leclerc and ruining my gummies?” Verstappen asked just before the start. The lights went out and Leclerc was on his own. In addition to Verstappen, the second Red Bull with Sergio Perez at the wheel was parked right behind him, followed by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes in fourth place.
Second place for the Silver Arrow: Lewis Hamilton is heading for the most successful race result of the year for Mercedes.
(Photo: Sylvain Thomas/AFP)
Leclerc got off to a great start, Verstappen was still decent, very different from Perez, who immediately saw Hamilton fly past him. Red Bull’s strategy of taking Leclerc in a pincer grip with the combined forces was ripe for the wastepaper basket even before the first corner. Behind it it got turbulent. Esteban Ocon hit Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri, the Japanese turned. Fernando Alonso in particular benefited, improving from seventh to fifth place.
Mick Schumacher also made a good start. After he was denied the fastest attempt in qualifying because he had left the track, his race to catch up began from 17th place. Within the first lap, he grabbed the cars of three competitors. But then the further journey forward became very difficult for him. Completely different from Carlos Sainz, who started a brilliant race to catch up and after ten laps had already stormed into twelfth place.
At the top, Verstappen hung like a shadow on Leclerc’s stern. The Monegasque was not able to break away decisively. Hamilton, on the other hand, could not follow Verstappen – and Perez put pressure behind him. After six laps, Verstappen ventured in Le Beausset the first attack that Leclerc was able to fend off. A decisive question quickly hovered in large letters over this duel of title candidates: Who would manage the overheated tires with a cooler head? Would Verstappen slow down to save his rubber? It looked like. Because secretly, tenth by tenth, Leclerc increased his lead over the Dutchman.
Sergio Perez misses the restart and gives away the podium
So what to do? Verstappen dared the attack and a so-called undercut, so after 16 laps he was the first to turn off for a fresh set of tires. He returned to the track in seventh place. And just when he was wondering if the plan would work, Leclerc and Ferrari did him the favor of throwing all the arithmetic players overboard. He screamed, flew off, stuck his front end into the tire wall.
The safety car rolled onto the track. All those pilots who had not yet stopped in the supply lane were given a free stop. And the Scuderia made a blunder when, after fitting the tyres, they chased Sainz into the lane too soon – right in front of Alex Albon, who had to brake his Williams hard to avoid a collision. Sainz was given a five-second penalty for this. Undeterred by this verdict, for which he was not responsible, he continued to fly. He even overtook fourth-placed Perez spectacularly, and his team then called him into the pits. “Not anymore,” Sainz replied. But he still had to stop and serve the penalty – and finally finished fifth.
And then the French Grand Prix received another punchline. After Guanyu Zhou triggered a virtual safety car, Perez completely slept through the moment of the restart. Wide awake, George Russell slipped past and snatched the podium from Perez, who offered him a surprise gift with a red ribbon wrapped around it. “Maybe he had tequila yesterday,” said motorsport consultant Helmut Marko. If the world weren’t rosy in Verstappen’s racing team, you might think that Red Bull will have to talk about it.