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Lando Norris took to social media to congratulate Max Verstappen on his win at the 2022 F1 French GP by posting a rather cheeky message saying "27 race wins between us after today." The two drivers are great friends off the track and both had great weekends at Circuit Paul Ricard.
While Lando Norris is yet to score a win, Max Verstappen has already picked up 27 wins in his F1 career and the two share admiration for each other.
Lando Norris had a strong race at Paul Ricard and was able to finish P7, albeit behind Fernando Alonso. Speaking to the media after the race, Norris said:
“Tough day but I think it was what we expected. It was a long race and we struggled a little bit with the degradation of the tyre but also just with the pure pace. We weren’t as quick as we needed to be, so yeah, just tough but I won’t say disappointed. It’s sort of what we were expecting, so not a surprise.’’
He continued:
“The upgrades did bring performance and we will work over the next event to make sure they’re fully optimised. We’ll keep pushing, keep trying to improve, and we’ll go again next weekend. Thanks again to all the team here and at the factory for their efforts.’’
Max Verstappen happy to extend the lead in the championship at Circuit Paul Ricard
Max Verstappen was able to cruise unchallenged to a win after Charles Leclerc's DNF. The Red Bull driver looked destined to battle it out with the Ferrari driver for the race win, but it all came to a head when Leclerc crashed out while leading the race. From that point onwards, it was all about pace management from Max Verstappen as he picked up his seventh win of the season.
The reigning world champion said the following about his race in France:
“We had really good pace from the start, although following around here, the tyres overheated a lot so I couldn’t really go for a move but I stayed calm and stayed close. It was really unlucky for Charles [Leclerc] and I’m glad he’s okay, it could have been a really fun race because both cars were so quick!’’
He further said:
“From there I just concentrated on my own race and looked after the tyres. The pit lane is so long here so that prevented us from having another pit stop. Today was a great day but there are plenty more races ahead of us and I just always aim for the most points possible, the fight is nowhere near over.’’
Max Verstappen now leads the 2022 F1 championship by 63 points from Charles Leclerc with only 10 races left to go. The Red Bull driver is now in the driver's seat when it comes to fighting for the title.
