Max Verstappen was relatively unchallenged on the way to victory in the sweltering heat at the French Grand Prix after title rival and pole-sitter Charles Leclerc crashed while leading the race.
The Monegasque threw away what looked likely to be another race win when he lost grip in his rear tyres and span into a tyre wall. It left Verstappen to coast to the win with Lewis Hamilton unable to catch, though the Brit recorded his best result of the season by finishing second.
Carlos Sainz perhaps should have taken the third spot on the podium after making his way from the back of the grid. However, Ferrari made the baffling call to pit him with 10 laps to go and left George Russell and Sergio Perez to fight for third.
Leclerc reacted well at the start to ensure he kept the lead in the first few corners. But Hamilton was the biggest winner as he got the jump on Perez to take third place, while Yuki Tsunoda dropped from eighth to last after contact with home boy Esteban Ocon.
It scuppered Red Bull's plan of having both their drivers piling pressure on Leclerc, but Verstappen was doing a fine job of that by himself. The Dutchman showed patience as he kept the pressure on in the opening few laps, forcing his rival to burn up his tyres with track temperatures hovering around 60 degrees.
But the longer Verstappen stayed there the more his own rubber suffered, and he was forced to back off to avoid overheating. Perez had to do the same with Hamilton as he really struggled for grip, with Russell sneaking up on the second Red Bull.
Things got much better for Red Bull after Verstappen pitted, though, when Leclerc crashed while leading the race. The Monegasque lost grip in his rear tyres while cornering and was powerless to prevent his car from spinning out and hitting the tyre wall at high speed.
It left Hamilton as the main opposition to the defending champion after moving up to second. But his Mercedes was still unable to compete with the pace of the Red Bull as Verstappen slowly but surely widened his lead as each lap went by.
Sainz was pushing Perez and eventually got around the Red Bull man. But then Ferrari made the mystifying call to call him into the pits when third place looked assured, dropping him to ninth with just 10 laps to make his way back up.
The Spaniard moved up to fifth but was too far back to trouble Russell and Perez for the podium fight. The Red Bull man had the position, but was fooled by some tricks from Russell during a late virtual safety car as he slowed right down and then got the jump on the Mexican to snatch the last podium spot.
Full 2022 French Grand Prix result
- Max Verstappen – Red Bull
- Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes
- George Russell – Mercedes
- Sergio Perez – Red Bull
- Carlos Sainz – Ferrari
- Fernando Alonso – Alpine
- Lando Norris – McLaren
- Esteban Ocon – Alpine
- Daniel Ricciardo – McLaren
- Lance Stroll – Aston Martin
- Sebastian Vettel – Aston Martin
- Pierre Gasly – AlphaTauri
- Alexander Albon – Williams
- Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo
- Mick Schumacher – Haas
DNF: Yuki Tsunoda, Charles Leclerc, Kevin Magnussen, Nicholas Latifi, Zhou Guanyu
