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In round 12 of the 2022 F1 season, Max Verstappen has once again emerged victorious. He took his seventh race win of the season at the French Grand Prix this weekend and further extended his lead in the championship standings with an extra 25 points.
Despite starting behind his title rival Charles Leclerc, the Dutchman drove a relatively lonely race this Sunday after the Monegasque's afternoon came to an abrupt end early on in the GP. On Lap 18 of the 53-lap race, Leclerc found himself in the barriers after apparently facing issues with the throttle, making up for his third retirement of the 2022 season. With this, and a fourth-place finish for Sergio Perez, a mere seven points remain between Leclerc and Perez, who stand second and third respectively in the standings.
Mercedes had the perfect Sunday in France, securing their best team result of the season so far with a double podium finish. Lewis Hamilton, in his 300th F1 career Grand Prix start, drove a strong race to come ahead of his teammate to get his best result of 2022 in second place. George Russell and Sergio Perez had quite the battle for third, although the Mexican eventually lost the position to Russell towards the end of the race.
What could have been a great weekend for Carlos Sainz despite a power unit penalty that sent him to the back of the grid for the race start, turned out to once again be an underwhelming GP for the Spaniard. This is not the first time that Ferrari's sloppy strategy has cost their drivers a strong result. The team's delayed and chaotic decisions resulted in a fifth-place finish for Sainz, who was showing the pace to finish on the podium, if not win the race itself.
Here are the 2022 F1 Driver Standings after the French Grand Prix
