Category: Motor Racing

Championship leader Max Verstappen produced another superb recovery charge to overcome a grid penalty and jump Charles Leclerc to deny Ferrari a home victory at Monza.

Polesitter Leclerc defied expectation by running a two-stop strategy but his late push on fresh tyres failed to produce enough pace to reel in the defending champion as Verstappen rose from seventh position.

Leclerc had his hopes bolstered by a late safety car that had the potential to throw a spanner in the works, but it was slow to pick up the leaders and duly denied a thrilling sprint to the finish and denied any Ferrari comeback.

That allowed the Red Bull Racing driver to claim his 31st victory, fifth in a row and eleventh of the season to close to within two triumphs of the record for the most successful Formula 1 season.

After a change of internal combustion engine on the advice of supplier Honda, Verstappen lined up seventh thanks to a five-place grid penalty following his lap for second in qualifying.

His RB18 was shod in the softest available C4 tyre to launch well and claim fifth swiftly following an anti-stall trigger for third-starting Lando Norris and a pass on Fernando Alonso.

Verstappen kept climbing in the early stages of the 53-lap 100th anniversary race at Monza. He relegated AlphaTauri pilot Pierre Gasly for fourth at the end of lap one before diving past 2021 Italian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo under braking into the first chicane for a provisional podium.

That left only Leclerc and second-starting George Russell up ahead, the Mercedes holding firm after aborting the first chicane while squabbling with the Ferrari for the early lead.

Despite the W13 separating the pair, Leclerc and Verstappen traded early fastest laps over the timing line as a net 2.5 seconds split the protagonists.

Then the Red Bull claimed second with a great run out of Ascari before combining DRS and the tow to pass Russell cleanly down the main straight to tee up the fight for the win.

With Verstappen a couple of tenths faster per lap, Ferrari attempted to twist by using a virtual safety car – called when Sebastian Vettel parked up with a smoky engine – to give Leclerc a cheaper pitstop.

He stopped for a set of mediums on lap 13 with a swift 2.2 seconds service just as the green flags were waved to dent the effectiveness of the undercut and Leclerc was released in third with 18 seconds to find.

Despite his aging softs, Verstappen was able to hold a decent pace – lapping only 0.5 seconds slower than Leclerc while holding a 10.2 seconds cushion to Russell as Leclerc trailed by a further 4.1 seconds.

As the F1-75 began to make gains, Verstappen pitted for mediums on lap 26 and courtesy of a quick 2.4 seconds stop, came out only a touch over 10 seconds adrift of the leader.

Verstappen’s fresh rubber enabled him to close the gap to 5.4 seconds when Ferrari called Leclerc in again on lap 34 for softs seemingly for a straightforward run to flag, the Red Bull returning in second over Russell.

Leclerc’s initial pace was subdued but he managed to turn up the wick to lap 0.4 seconds faster than Verstappen as the gap stood at 18 seconds with ten laps to go.

But a spanner was thrown in the works on lap 47 when Ricciardo parked up out of Ascari with an engine failure to trigger a safety car, which was deployed late but Verstappen pitted next time around for new softs and Leclerc swapped to used C4s along with Russell in third.

With the field well spread out, the safety car picking up Russell instead and then the lapped cars of Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda splitting the lead duo, plus the McLaren taking time to be cleared by the crane, the race was not restarted to deny a sprint to the flag.

As such, Verstappen secured the win over Leclerc as Russell completed the podium, while Carlos Sainz turned in a rapid first-stint ascension to offset his back of the grid penalty and snare fourth.

Lewis Hamilton did similar, notably holding onto his Mercedes while chasing Alonso plus performing a slick double pass on Norris and Gasly to bag seventh position.

Sergio Perez was able to make the flag despite a persistent brake fire at his first stop for hard tyres, as Norris claimed seventh over Gasly.

Formula E champion Nyck de Vries equalled Williams’ best result of the season in ninth to cap off his fine substitute appearance for an appendicitis-side-lined Alex Albon.

This was an impressive drive by De Vries, subbing at late notice and delivering by finishing in the points with P9.

Zhou Guanyu, meanwhile, completed the top ten for Alfa Romeo ahead of Esteban Ocon and Mick Schumacher.

Behind Bottas and Tsunoda, Nicholas Latifi and Kevin Magnussen (picking up a 5 seconds penalty for aborting the first chicane) completed the runners.

Alongside Ricciardo and Vettel, Lance Stroll and Alonso (suspected water pump failure) were forced to pull up early.

So congratulations to Max Verstappen. After a triple header of races at Spa, Zandvoort and Monza, the Red Bull driver has won it all and is heading towards his second championship title thanks to the big haul of points. Well deserved.

Italian Grand Prix, Monza:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:20:27.511
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +2.446
3 George Russell Mercedes +3.405
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +5.061
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +5.380
6 Sergio Perez Red Bull +6.091
7 Lando Norris McLaren +6.207
8 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +6.396
9 Nyck de Vries Williams +7.122s
10 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +7.910s
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine +8.323s
12 Mick Schumacher Haas +8.549s
13 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +1 lap
14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +1 lap
15 Nicholas Latifi Williams +1 lap
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
– Daniel Ricciardo McLaren DNF
– Lance Stroll Aston Martin DNF
– Fernando Alonso Alpine DNF
– Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin DNF

Charles Leclerc scored a popular pole position in front of the passionate Tifosi at Monza. Championship leader Max Verstappen qualified in second with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz third but both will drop several grid positions due to exceeding power unit.

Regardless of Verstappen taking a five-place grid drop for a new internal combustion engine, Leclerc set the pace by a quarter of a second to the delight of the home fans as Sainz, who will start at the back of the grid, clocked third over Sergio Perez.

Ferrari had provisionally secured a 1-2 in Q3 as Sainz delivered a one minute, 20.584 seconds on his first run in Q3, helped by a purple run through sector one, to edge Leclerc’s one minute, 20.770 seconds effort.

Verstappen initially settled for third, despite his second-sector prowess, as he was a little under a tenth adrift of the second F1-75.

And then for the climax, it looked as though the Red Bull might offer a last-ditch reply when Verstappen clocked the fastest run through the middle part of the circuit yet again to heap on the pressure.

Even though Leclerc had been a couple of hundredths slower than Sainz’s benchmark in S1 and never stitched together a purple sector, his combined effort scored a peerless one minute, 20.161 seconds.

That gave him the bragging rights over Verstappen’s one minute, 20.306 seconds even before the RB18 takes up sixth on the grid as Sainz ran to a one minute, 20.429 seconds.

With Perez dropping ten places – Check having been a league behind the top three as he 0.8 seconds down on the sister Red Bull – and Lewis Hamilton another driver exceeding his permitted parts limit, George Russell will start alongside Leclerc.

This came despite the Mercedes W13 again struggling to heat its tyres.

Lando Norris, meanwhile, snared seventh fastest over Daniel Ricciardo as Pierre Gasly did enough to pip Alpine’s Fernando Alonso – the double champion aborting his final run.

Gasly had fired himself into the top ten shootout courtesy of a one minute, 22.062 seconds effort in Q2 to find 0.07 seconds over Esteban Ocon, the Alpine driver missing out in P11 after running slower in the first and second sectors compared to his previous lap.

Gasly escaped the stewards’ attention for being released side-by-side with Lando Norris as part of a late flurry to find track position when all left the garages with two minutes and 20 seconds to go.

Valtteri Bottas, who struggled on the brakes throughout practice, ran to P12 ahead of Formula E champion and Alex Albon replacement Nyck de Vries aboard the Williams.

De Vries had been complaining in his first-ever F1 qualifying session of struggling on the brakes into the first chicane, but his final flying lap was scuppered later in the lap.

On the approach to the second chicane, the former Formula 2 and Formula E champion locked the rears to suffer a big snap which he eventually caught, but immediately knew his qualifying session was done.

Despite that error, he put the FW44’s straight-line speed supremacy to good use to take a solid P14 ahead of Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo and Yuki Tsunoda.

The AlphaTauri driver, who joins Hamilton and Sainz with a back of the grid penalty, did not take part in Q2.

That came after Verstappen became the first driver of the weekend to fall below one minute, 21 seconds, having topped the 18-minute Q1 by 0.35 seconds over Leclerc courtesy of his one minute, 20.922 seconds flier.

But it was less rosy for Nicholas Latifi, whose struggles on the brakes eliminated him in the first part of qualifying as he lapped just two hundredths slower than de Vries’s first go.

Subbing for an appendicitis-sidelined Alex Albon, de Vries hung on for a Q2 appearance despite his final faster lap in Q1 behind scrubbed for pushing his luck with track limits.

Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, continued his run of Q1 exits in P17 while Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll was only P18 as Haas brought up the rear.

It was a messy session for both VF-22s, as Kevin Magnussen twice had his times deleted for exceeding track limits thanks to a brace of offences at the second Lesmo.

Mick Schumacher, who was stymied in practice by clutch issues, ran slowest after a considerable front-right lock up into the first chicane to run straight on.

So congratulations to Charles Leclerc. To take pole position in the Italian Grand Prix driving a Ferrari in the team’s home event is a rewarding and with so many drivers with grid penalties this is the best chance for Leclerc to win the race.

Italian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:20.161
2 George Russell Mercedes 1:21.542
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:21.584
4 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:21.925
5 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:22.648
6 Fernando Alonso Alpine No time
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:20.306
8 Nyck de Vries Williams 1:22.471
9 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:22.577
10 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:22.587
11 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:22.636
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:22.748
13 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:21.206
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:22.130
15 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:22.235
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:22.908
17 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:23.005
18 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:20.429
19 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:21.524
20 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri No time

Championship leader Max Verstappen scored an important result at his home race in front of the massive orange army by winning the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, his tenth victory of the season for Red Bull Racing.

Although Verstappen won from pole and initially looked to have Charles Leclerc easily covered, Mercedes’ race pace brought it into play with a one-stop strategy versus Red Bull’s planned two services.

That gave Lewis Hamilton a chance for an unlikely win, before he initially lost that then regained during dramatic virtual and the full safety car periods close to the end of the race.

When the lights went out under thick cloud cover that had built up ahead of the start, Verstappen quickly moved to chop off Leclerc’s look to the inside of Turn 1.

In any case, the Ferrari driver was never close enough to make a move, while behind, Sainz and Hamilton touched lightly as the Mercedes gained ground considerably around the inside of the Tarzan hairpin.

The pack made it through the opening turns without further incident, with Hamilton the only one of the leaders to use the low line through the steeply banked Hugenholtz Turn 3.

Verstappen pressed his advantage to escape DRS range to Leclerc by the end of the second lap of 72, with Leclerc going from 1.5 seconds behind two laps later to only a second behind his rival over the next few tours.

But just as it looked as if Leclerc might be able to gain the overtaking aid, Verstappen suddenly found a chunk of pace in the low one minute, 16 seconds to re-establish his bigger advantage.

The two leaders were the only pair able to stay in that laptime bracket, with Sainz soon falling far behind Leclerc and with Hamilton swarming, the highest place driver to start on the medium tyres compared to the softs being run on the leading three cars.

As the race settled down, Verstappen continued to edge away from Leclerc, his lead rising steadily towards three seconds before ballooning to nearly five before Ferrari called Leclerc in at the end of lap 17.

Red Bull responded on the subsequent tour and despite his similar service to go from the softs to the mediums being nearly a second slower than Ferrari’s, Verstappen emerged with his lead barely tripped given his in- and out-lap speed.

The top two pitting left Hamilton to lead on his first stint mediums, with George Russell running three seconds behind his Mercedes teammate having started on the same compound and battled by Lando Norris once DRS was activated after the McLaren had jumped the second Silver Arrows car at the start.

Verstappen and Leclerc used their fresh mediums to head back towards the Mercedes cars over the next phase of the race, with the Red Bull, which had been nearly nine seconds off Hamilton’s lead when he returned from the pits, reaching DRS range behind Russell on lap 27.

But at the start of the next lap, Verstappen used the DRS to shoot right up behind the Mercedes and blast by to move up to second on the outside run through Tarzan.

Before Verstappen could close on Hamilton, Mercedes brought the driver in to take the hard tyres at the end of lap 29, an attempt to complete the race on a one-stop strategy.

With the home hero handed the lead back and saying he was not interested in trying the hards, Hamilton rejoined a net fourth behind Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull, Sainz having fallen out of contention due to a calamitous Ferrari pitstop shortly before Leclerc came in for the first time.

As Verstappen began a charge that would double his lead over Leclerc and be ten seconds clear shortly after halfway, while Hamilton and Russell used their hards to quickly home in on Perez.

On lap 36, Hamilton used DRS to attack Perez on Tarzan’s outside line, with Perez locking up on the inside and the running aggressively running the Mercedes wide before Hamilton backed off.

Hamilton attacked again on the Turn 11 entry to the track’s stadium but was again rebuffed on the outside line, but the next time by into Turn 1 he was able to run around the outside to take third.

But there was a sudden danger when Sebastian Vettel’s lapped Aston Martin emerged from the pits just ahead of the battling pair and stayed ahead for several corners, which meant Perez could crowd Hamilton but was unable to pass when Vettel eventually allowed the by, the Aston Martin driver receiving a five-second penalty for his actions.

Hamilton set off after Leclerc and Verstappen, who had changed his mind about the durability of his mediums and Red Bull considering hards for his second stop, which it gave to Perez on lap 40, just after Russell had also passed him at Turn 1.

Ferrari realised Leclerc would have little defence against the charging Mercedes pair and he also came in to take the hards at the end of lap 45, by which time Hamilton had gone from nearly 20s behind Verstappen to not much above half that.

But around the same time, the race changed dramatically when Yuki Tsunoda stopped in the middle of the fast Turn 4/5 sequence, initially fearing his wheels were not properly attached after his second stop back in the pack.

He got going again and returned to the pits where AlphaTauri spent 30 seconds checking something inside his cockpit – possibly his seat belts – before he rejoined but then did stop at Turn 4 saying he thought the differential was broken.

That meant the virtual safety car was activated and Red Bull could bring Verstappen in for hards with a cheap pitstop, which preserved his lead.

In fact, it stayed exactly the same as Mercedes also used the temporary suspension to put Hamilton and Russell back onto the mediums – the former recognising the VSC had “stuffed” his previous charge on the one-stopper.

When the action went green again on lap 50, Verstappen and the Mercedes shot into the 1m14s bracket, with Hamilton facing a 12.6 seconds gap and Leclerc back to fourth after losing out having made his stop before the VSC.

Over the next couple of laps, Hamilton closed that to 11.4 seconds before the race picture was massively altered again on lap 55, this time because Valtteri Bottas lost power in his Alfa Romeo and pulled over just before the first corner on the main straight.

That meant the safety car was activated, with Red Bull bringing Verstappen in to go back to the hards and the two Mercedes staying out while most others – including Leclerc – also dived in to fit the red-walled rubber.

The next time by, Russell demanded Mercedes put him on the softs as he was losing tyre temperature in the mediums at low speed, which allowed Verstappen back into second behind Hamilton who remained on the yellow-walled compound.

The race restarted on lap 61, where Verstappen was all over Hamilton’s rear end as they raced down the main straight and he easily slipstreamed by to retake the lead.

Verstappen blasted to a 1.7 seconds lead at the end of the first lap back to racing speed, with Hamilton fuming to Mercedes about its decision to leave him on the mediums.

His pace was so poor Russell, who had seen off Leclerc’s attentions around the outside of Turn 1 at the restart, was able to quickly close in and jump his teammate, although not before they nearly came together running down the main straight when Russell had DRS.

Hamilton was then overcome by Leclerc to fall off the podium, still sending angry radio messages about his final tyre strategy, while Verstappen pulled out an eventual winning margin of 4.0 seconds.

Sainz crossed the line fifth having come back into the picture and got ahead of Perez during the VSC and safety car chaos, but he dropped down to eighth in the final order as a result of an unsafe release into the path of Fernando Alonso at their final stops during the Bottas-stoppage-caused race neutralisation.

That meant Perez, Alonso and Norris moved ahead to take positions five to seven, with Sainz also having to explain post-race an incident with Esteban Ocon (ninth) where the Ferrari appeared to overtake the Alpine under yellow flags activated when Bottas stopped.

This followed Sainz’s initial first pitstop disaster when Ferrari did not have all his medium tyres ready in time and Perez, behind the Alpine driver in the first stint after starting fifth, running over and breaking a Ferrari wheel gun that had been left in his path in the tight pitlane.

Lance Stroll completed the top ten, with Bottas and Tsunoda the only retirements.

So congratulations to Max Verstappen in winning his home event for the second year in a row. This is looking good in terms of the championship with a healthy points lead over his rival. It’s Ferrari’s home race next at the temple of speed at Monza.

Dutch Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:36:42.773
2 George Russell Mercedes 4.071s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 10.929s
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 13.016s
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull 18.168s
6 Fernando Alonso Alpine 18.754s
7 Lando Norris McLaren 19.306s
8 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 20.916s
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 21.117s
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 22.459s
11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 27.009s
12 Alex Albon Williams 30.390s
13 Mick Schumacher Haas 32.995s
14 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 36.007s
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas 36.869s
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 37.320s
17 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 37.764s
18 Nicholas Latifi Williams FW44 +1 lap
– Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo DNF
– Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri DNF

Championship leader Max Verstappen took pole position at his home race, Zandvoort, beating Charles Leclerc by a tiny margin of 0.021 seconds.

Verstappen ended up with pole after reversing Leclerc’s advantage from the opening Q1 runs, with the session interrupted by race fans throwing flares onto the track, causing Q2 to be red flagged.

Leclerc led Verstappen by 0.059 seconds after the first Q3 runs, with the 2022 frontrunners converging on pace after Red Bull’s tricky start to the weekend.

The Ferrari driver set the quickest times in the first and last sectors on his final lap, but being unable to replicate his best time in the middle part of the track cost him dear.

This was because Verstappen set a purple sector and ended up with a best time of one minute, 10.342 seconds, 0.021 seconds quicker than his rival.

Carlos Sainz slotted into third position just before Sergio Perez spun at the end of his final lap – Checo dipping his left-side wheels into the gravel at the exit of the penultimate corner and spearing around to the inside of the banked final turn.

That meant the following Mercedes drivers were obliged to lift off and so Lewis Hamilton ended up fourth with Perez fifth ahead of George Russell.

Lando Norris took seventh ahead of Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished tenth after being unable to run in Q3 due a technical issue on his car.

Stroll’s mechanics were spotted inspecting the front damper area of his AMR2022 before Q3 began – the final segment featuring flare smoke blowing from the pit exit but covered by a brief yellow flag ahead of the final runs.

Q2 was suspended shortly after it had begun when another lit flare from the grandstands overlooking the exit of Turn 12 and the last part of the track’s stadium section was thrown on the track.

The FIA, which said the person who threw the flare “identified and removed by event security”, suspended the action until it went out and could be removed.

During the stoppage, the marshals at Turn 7 attempted to clear some pigeons that had settled on the inside of that corner, which Alex Albon had noted as he ran solo at the start of the middle segment before the flare had to be cleared.

The Q2 action resumed after a six-minute delay and when it ended Pierre Gasly ended up as the highest-placed runner eliminated in P11 – despite setting a personal best time on his final flier.

That meant Tsunoda survived to reach Q3, with Esteban Ocon likewise knocked out after producing his best time at the end of Q2.

Fernando Alonso trailed his Alpine teammate in P13, but put the blame for his early exit on encountering Perez going slowly on an in-lap through the Turn 9 double apex right-hander.

Zhou Guanyu finished P14 for Alfa Romeo, with Albon shuffled back from P10 to P15 after completing his final lap well ahead of the rest in the closing Q2 minutes.

In Q1, Gasly’s late improvement knocked out Valtteri Bottas in the other Alfa Romeo, with Kevin Magnussen, initially out in P17 but was soon dropped to P18 as his flirtation with track limits at the Hugenholtz on his final flier went too far and the FIA deleted his effort.

That meant Daniel Ricciardo finished P17 when teammate Norris had got through the opening segment in fifth, while Sebastian Vettel ended up back in P19 after making a major error on his last lap.

Just after he had set a then fastest time in the first sector and his quickest middle sector of Q1, Vettel could not hold an oversteer snap through the penultimate corner and so slid wide and into the gravel trap on the exit.

Nicholas Latifi finished last for Williams.

So after a tricky practice sessions on Friday in which Max Verstappen suffered a gearbox/driveshaft issue and lost valuable track time, the Red Bull driver bounced back in terms of pace to take pole position in qualifying. Can Max score a popular win in front of his home fans? The pressure is on at Zandvoort.

Dutch Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:10.342
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:10.363
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:10.434
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:10.648
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:11.077
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:11.147
7 Lando Norris McLaren 1:11.174
8 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:11.442
9 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:12.556
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Mercedes No time
11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:11.512
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:11.605
13 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:11.613
14 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:11.704
15 Alex Albon Williams 1:11.802
16 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:11.961
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:12.041
18 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:12.081
19 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:12.391
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:13.353

Championship leader Max Verstappen was in masterclass form despite starting the Belgian Grand Prix in P14 following power unit changes to take victory at Spa-Francorchamps and leading home a Red Bull 1-2 over teammate Sergio Perez.

The defending champion stretched his points lead over Charles Leclerc by taking control of events at Spa, moving into first position as early as lap 12 of 44 before cruising to a 18 seconds win.

With the Red Bull RB18 proving so effective in a straight line to allow Perez to dart past polesitter Carlos Sainz on the long Kemmel Straight, Checo brought home second.

Meanwhile, Sainz completed the podium ahead of George Russell as Lewis Hamilton retired following an opening lap crash with former McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Despite topping qualifying over Sainz by a might 0.6 seconds, Verstappen was dropped into the pack for exceeding his allocation of power units – but an electrical glitch on the grid for AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly promoted Verstappen to start P13, one spot over Leclerc.

That appeared to leave it up to second-starting Perez to take the fight to Sainz, but he fluffed his launch to drop to fifth into Les Combe behind both Mercedes and Alonso.

With the medium tyre RB18 bogging down, soft-starting Sainz was afforded an easy run through La Source to consolidate first place ahead of the Alpine as Hamilton tucked into Alonso’s tow on the climb up the hill.

But the pair made contact into Les Combe. Alonso appeared to be fully over the inside kerb, but was pinched by the W13 as Hamilton’s rear-right making contact with Alonso’s front-left tyre.

That launched the W13’s back axle into the air and although the seven-time champion initially rejoined, he was very slow and swiftly parked up with a loss of water pressure.

The yellow flags then morphed into a full safety car after Nicholas Latifi and Valtteri Bottas came to blows at the exit of the chicane, with the Alfa Romeo ending up in the gravel.

Starting in P14, Ocon messed up the corner to run over the inside sausage kerb, it appeared to put Latifi off line as he ran wide and kissed the gravel to pitch the Williams into a spin.

Bottas was innocently collected and turned around to retire. However, both this and the Alonso-Hamilton bash passed without penalties after investigation.

However, Hamilton was given with a warning for not visiting the medical centre despite his shunt exceeding the stipulated impact limit.

Sainz lost his initial 2.1 seconds lead over Perez to the safety car as Russell slotted into third ahead of Russell and a flying Sebastian Vettel, the retiring Aston Martin driver rising from ninth.

Leclerc, meanwhile, was forced to pit at the end of lap three after a visor tear-off had lodged itself in his front-right brake duct to cause overheating and reports of smoke.

He was stopped from ninth, one spot behind title rival Verstappen, for mediums.

As the safety car peeled in at the end of lap four, Sainz led a very slow restart and even locked up into the Bus Stop chicane but a fine exit kept him clear of Perez.

The RB18 driver duly locked up into La Source, forcing him to worry about Russell behind as Sainz pulled a 1.2 seconds gap.

Meanwhile, Verstappen picked off Daniel Ricciardo and then used DRS to fly past Alonso for fourth place on the Kemmel Straight with 1.6 seconds to find to the Mercedes ahead. But that only took until lap eight before Verstappen dragged past Russell to get one foot on the podium.

The 2.6 seconds deficit to Perez was soon eviscerated by Verstappen, but he was delayed getting past his team-mate, who didn’t give way as easily as he could have done into Les Combes.

But with an early fastest lap effort under his belt, and having complained about the “silly” amount of time lost, Verstappen closed and slipstreamed past out of Eau Rouge.

With Ferrari pitting Sainz for a set of mediums at the end of lap 11 before losing time rejoining behind Ricciardo, Verstappen’s initial ascent to first place had been completed.

Such was Verstappen’s prowess that despite running the more delicate soft tyres in warmer temperatures than experienced at any point in the weekend, he was more able to edge life out of them than renowned tyre whisperer Perez on the mediums.

So much so, Red Bull pitted Perez at the end of lap 14 for another set of the yellow-walled tyres while Verstappen stayed out and continued to nurse his C4s.

With Perez effectively keeping Leclerc at bay as he rejoined, the Red Bull squeezing the Ferrari on the outside into Les Combes to the point where the pair made brief contact.

Verstappen eventually came into the pits at the end of lap 15 as his levels of traction deteriorated, Red Bull swapping him into mediums to rejoin in front of Perez.

That left Sainz with a 4.7 seconds cushion to protect the win, the Ferrari’s mediums now four laps old. But Verstappen tore chunks out the gap and on lap 17 was on the F1-75’s rear.

First position and eventual win would effectively be decided when Verstappen powered up Eau Rouge and used DRS to leap Sainz into Les Combes.

Three laps later, Perez was right on the Ferrari and sold Sainz a dummy on the Kemmel Straight to power around the outside for second place and a Red Bull 1-2.

Sainz would pit for his second stop on lap 25, switching to hards as Leclerc was moved onto mediums. Verstappen would make his final visit to the pits of lap 30 for mediums and returned with an 8 seconds lead over Perez.

Lapping consistently seven tenths faster than his stablemate, Verstappen was able to cross the line with fastest lap to claim the spoils by 17.8 seconds and edge closer to a 100-point lead.

With Perez on the hard tyre to cover off Sainz, the Red Bull crossed the line 9 seconds ahead of the lead Ferrari as Russell ran to fourth another 2.2 seconds in arrears.

Leclerc was pitted on the penultimate lap for a switch to softs in a bid to nick the point for fastest lap off Verstappen. But on cool tyres, was released into the path of Alonso.

The Alpine picked off the Ferrari for fifth, and while Leclerc recovered the place on the last lap, he missed the bonus point and was then knocked back to sixth owing to a 5 seconds penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Ocon crossed the line in seventh, helped by a glorious double overtake on the Kemmel Straight as he picked up a powerful tow from Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly.

Vettel, meanwhile, led Gasly as Alex Albon completed the top ten for Williams.

For much of the second half, Albon kept a train of cars at bay – the queue led by Lance Stroll and then Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Danuel Ricciardo.

Kevin Magnussen led team-mate Mick Schumacher for P16 and P17 as Latifi eventually finished in P18.

So a dominant victory for Max Verstappen even with the grid penalty. The pace of the Red Bull RB18 is simply outstanding and gaining more points is vital in terms of the championship. The next race is Max’s home event so big pressure is on as his passionate fans are expecting another top result but given his top form, this is looking very good. So congratulations Max with this P1.

Belgian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:25:52.894
2 Sergio Pérez Red Bull +17.841s
3 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari +26.886s
4 George Russell Mercedes +29.140s
5 Fernando Alonso Alpine +73.256s
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +74.936s
7 Esteban Ocon Alpine +75.640s
8 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +78.107s
9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +92.181s
10 Alexander Albon Williams +101.900s
11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +103.078s
12 Lando Norris McLaren +104.739s
13 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +105.217s
14 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +106.252s
15 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +107.163s
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
17 Mick Schumacher Haas +1 lap
18 Nicholas Latifi Williams +1 lap
– Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo DNF
– Lewis Hamilton Mercedes DNF

Championship leader Max Verstappen dominated qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps but grid penalties mean Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz will line up on pole position.

The Red Bull driver elected not to take part in the final shootout in Q3, knowing he will start from the back of the grid owing to a drop for exceeding his permitted parts count.

Nevertheless, his banker lap was so fast that he topped the session by six tenths of a second as Sainz’s messy final flying lap meant he was unable to improve.

Sergio Perez will join the Scuderia on the front row of the grid, while Leclerc will meet Verstappen as the pair are poised to line up in P13 and P14.

Verstappen was a class apart after the first round of flying laps in the final to qualifying, the defending champopn setting a one minute, 43.665 seconds – the sole sub one minute, 44 seconds lap of the weekend.

That gave him a mighty 0.632 seconds in hand over Sainz, while Perez was third and another two tenths back before his lap was flagged for exceeding track limits at Raidillon.

Leclerc, meanwhile, was fourth, having been initially sent out on a set of scrubbed softs.

While both Alpines, Mercedes, Norris and Albon were also released on used rubber, Ferrari admitted over team radio this was a mistake.

Team boss Mattia Binotto even appeared to intimate pointing a gun to his head on the pit wall after Leclerc crossed the line.

Leclerc then dived back out of the pits after his sole effort to just pick up Sainz out of La Source to tow his teammate down the long Kemmel Straight.

But the tactics proved in vain as Sainz missed his personal best first sector before clipping the gravel through Les Fanges to wind up on a one minute, 44.714 seconds and duly failing to improve.

That left his earlier one minute, 44.297 seconds as his best effort, however the British Grand Prix winner has no penalties to carry over to the grid to line up on first.

Perez similarly failed to improve at his second attempt, while Esteban Ocon (also destined to be sent to the back of the grid) pipped Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso for a team 5-6 result.

Lewis Hamilton led George Russell for seventh and eighth, the W13s running some 1.8 seconds off Verstappen. A massive disadvantage in terms of performance…

Mercedes appears to be on the back foot for what might have been its best shot at a race win in 2022 given Verstappen and Leclerc’s reprimand.

Alex Albon starred in Q3 as Williams made its straight-line speed count in the opening sector (Albon running fastest of everyone), as he clocked ninth and is poised to line up in sixth position.

Lando Norris, meanwhile, opted against a second flying lap and was P10 in Q1, but he too has penalties to serve.

Albon’s late dash over the line in Q2 bumped Daniel Ricciardo out by 0.1 seconds, although the departing McLaren driver is set to start in seventh place with grid penalties considered.

Ricciardo stayed in the garage initially to pin all his hopes on one flying lap. But with teammate Norris destined to start at the back of the grid, Ricciardo was given a tow by his McLaren colleague.

The McLarens worked together for the Kemmel Straight but even still Daniel ran slower than Lando’s likely unaided lap to sit in P10 before Albon improved over the line.

That relegated Ricciardo, where he was joined on the sidelines by AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu in the Alfa Romeo, Lance Stroll and Mick Schumacher, who ran P15 fastest.

Neither Red Bull required a second bite of the cherry and so remained in the garage, which left the door open for Leclerc to top Q2 late on by 0.15 seconds courtesy of his one minute, 44.551 seconds effort.

However, his banker had been only good enough for sixth – the Ferrari driver have clipped the grass in his “very strange” car before losing the back end through the Bus Stop chicane.

Perez ending Q2 only 0.07 seconds adrift of Verstappen was a little flattered by him running fresh soft Pirellis while the defending champion plied his trade on a scrubbed set of tyres.

Sebastian Vettel was the first driver to miss out on a Q2 appearance, the retiring Aston Martin driver being knocked at in the first 18-minute session yet again.

The four-time champion crossed the line just 0.002 seconds adrift of the cut-off, set by his effective protégé Schumacher in P15 after the Haas driver’s late improvement.

With Verstappen sitting pretty by 0.5 seconds at the top of the leaderboard over Sainz after their banker laps, neither Red Bull nor Ferrari drivers opted for a second flying lap as they occupied the top four positions.

The remaining 15 cars, with Ocon then fifth, headed out with three minutes and 30 seconds to go and felt the benefit of track evolution as all those in the bottom five place began to improve.

Yuki Tsunoda had been P15 at the time and the first driver at risk, and the AlphaTauri driver did his chances no favour when he locked up massively into the Bus Stop chicane to abort the corner and left himself prey. He was duly bumped to P19.

He was only faster than Valtteri Bottas, but the Alfa Romeo driver was already destined to start near the back of the grid owing to a 20-place penalty for component changes – much like Norris, Schumacher, Ocon, Zhou, Leclerc, and Verstappen.

As a result, it appears likely that despite his mistake, Tsunoda will start the race in P13.

Kevin Magnussen was only P18 fastest, behind Nicholas Latifi in P17 – while Williams team-mate Albon using the low-downforce FW44 to smash the fast-opening sector to climb to sixth in Q1.

The start of qualifying had been delayed by 25 minutes, announced a quarter of an hour before the session began, owing to Les Fagnes barrier repairs prompted by a Porsche Supercup shunt.

So a mixed up grid positions for the Belgian Grand Prix following a raft of grid penalties due to a exceeding parts of the power unit. This will certainly make the Spa-Francorchamps race exciting.

Belgian Grand Prix starting grid after penalties are applied:
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:44.297
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:44.462
3 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:45.368
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:45.503
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:45.776
6 Alex Albon Williams 1:45.837
7 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:45.767
8 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:45.827
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:46.611
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:46.344
11 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:46.401
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:46.557
13 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:46.692
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:47.866
15 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:43.665
16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1;44.553
17 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:45.180
18 Lando Norris McLaren 1:46.178
19 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:46.085
20 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:47.718

Following a disappointing qualifying session, Max Verstappen came through from P10 on the grid to score a remarkable victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Finishing ahead of both Mercedes as Ferrari threw away a win with further questionable strategy decisions.

The defending world champion overcame his qualifying power loss and a spin thanks to expert tyre management to complete his rise from P10 to victory to extend his points lead.

Lewis Hamilton headed a Mercedes 2-3 over maiden polesitter George Russell, who had led for 30 laps, as front-row starter Carlos Sainz slid to fifth position over Red Bull’s recovering Sergio Perez.

Meanwhile, early leader Charles Leclerc was the only frontrunner to make three stops to be passed on track twice by Verstappen and ultimately fall to sixth position.

Russell was put on a set of used softs to launch on a dry track, the spots of rain that had been landing in the build-up to the race failing to develop into a full-blown shower initially.

Thanks to the grippier rubber, the Mercedes launched strongly to pull across and eventually cover off the medium-Pirelli shod Ferrari threat into Turn 1 and duly consolidated first position.

Sainz had tried to bully it around the outside of the right-hander before the W13 cut back at the apex, with the Scuderia then keeping in formation with Leclerc slotting into third place.

Hamilton, meanwhile, nailed his getaway to pounce past both Alpines for fifth behind soft-shod Lando Norris, as Verstappen propelled his RB18 around the outside of Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo to rapidly hit eighth place after his qualifying power loss late in Q3.

Russell crossed the line at the end of the opening lap with 1.6 seconds in hand over Sainz.

After a quick virtual safety car for Sebastian Vettel being nipped with Alex Albon, Russell added another second over the chasing F1-75 next time around, with Leclerc 1.5 seconds adrift.

It took until lap 14 for the red-walled C4 Pirellis to show the first signs of degrading for the W13 as Sainz tore a 0.6 seconds chunk out of Russell, the lead Ferrari having to shown enough pace to prevent the pitwall from swapping the order under pressure to intervene by Leclerc.

With the red cars nose-to-tail, it looked as though they would be split when Sainz was told to box at the end of lap 16 but he stayed out as Russell then came in for his first stop.

The polesitter was slowly swapped onto a set of mediums after a front-right delay to emerge side by side with Fernando Alonso, cutting back through Turns 2 and 3 to seal sixth.

One tour later Ferrari responded. Sainz was called in to release Leclerc, but the Spaniard too was delayed in a 3.7 seconds medium change to crucially come out behind Alonso’s Alpine machine.

That left Leclerc to lead by 11 seconds over Hamilton before the Mercedes was called in on lap 20.

Russell was therefore released into second position but with a 19 seconds gap to the leading Leclerc.

As the lap counter hit the high teens, Leclerc’s pace was declining. He was subsequently stopped at the end of lap 21 for a set of mediums in 2.9 seconds to promote Russell into the lead.

The maiden polesitter had 2.6 seconds in hand over to chaser as Sainz sat a further 1s in arrears while champion Verstappen occupied fourth place another 3.5 seconds further adrift.

With the Ferrari well suited to the tight Hungaroring all weekend, Leclerc soon gained the DRS overtaking aid to bring the gap down and weld himself to the Mercedes gearbox.

Russell was forced to defend, squeezing the F1-75 to the outside line wherever possible to maximise the distance Leclerc had to travel at the difficult-to-pass Budapest venue.

Then on lap 31, Leclerc made it stick. Russell moved to the inside line into Turn 1 early to cover off the Ferrari but with DRS it tightly squeezed by into the braking zone for first.

Leclerc immediately pulled seven tenths on the Mercedes and doubled that gap over the rest of the lap, the advantage climbing to 2.8 seconds with Russel in third and Verstappen fourth.

Verstappen made a crucial stop on lap 39 for mediums and despite sparks flying from the right-rear corner, he was serviced in a rapid 2.4 seconds – encouraged with the radio message that “there’s still a long way to go”.

Verstappen came out in sixth as Russel made a second stop for mediums next time around, Leclerc then visiting the garage for an ill-fated set of the hardest-available C2 Pirelli tyre.

The Red Bulls having jumped Russell, the Ferrari returned in third behind Hamilton and Sainz on the slowest compound and struggled to generate temperature to leave him vulnerable.

Verstappen had DRS on Leclerc into Turn 1 to depose the Ferrari, the Dutch ace shrewdly opening his steering a fraction at the apex to force Leclerc to compromise his line further.

Getting back on the power, the Ferrari stepped out of line to let Verstappen romp away.

But Leclerc was given a second chance, despite blasting the state of the tyres. Verstappen tried to pick the power out of the penultimate Turn 13 but span the rears and rotated.

He caught the Red Bull in 360 degrees but not before the Ferrari had streaked back past, even if Perez limited the damage by blocking Russell and staying behind his teammate.

But come lap 43, Verstappen was back within a second of chief championship rival Leclerc and he cut his RB18 back through Turns 2 to retake the position down the hill into Turn 3.

Ferrari called Sainz in three laps later to relinquish the lead and a fumbled rear-left change onto softs meant he was held for a slow 4.6 seconds to give Hamilton a 6.4 seconds margin to Verstappen.

Hamilton finally made his second stop on the end of lap 51 for a switch to softs and came out in fifth, ten seconds down on Sainz as Russell usurped Leclerc – still struggling on the hard tyres.

The Ferrari broke loose through the final corner to give Russell an easy run for second over the line as Ferrari eventually aborted its strategy and was forced into an additional stop.

The soft tyres were bolted on but having led, he returned over 30s behind Verstappen.

With Verstappen managing the mediums to the flag, including a late VSC for Bottas stopping with power loss aboard his Alfa Romeo at turn 12, he streaked to an unlikely victory by 7.8 seconds.

The Mercedes were the next fastest cars in the final phase of the race, with soft-shod Hamilton able to depose Sainz on older tyres and then teammate Russell for second place.

Despite complaining his tyres had dropped off, Russell too had the legs on Sainz to nail consecutive 2-3 finishes for Mercedes as Perez inflicted more pain on Ferrari in fifth place.

Leclerc’s extra pitstop consigned him to sixth ahead of Norris, who switched to hard tyres to keep ahead of the one-stopping Alpines of Alonso and Ocon.

Vettel recovered from the early contact with Albon to score the final point in the updated Aston Martin ahead of teammate Lance Stroll, the Aston Martin having been turned around after contact with Ricciardo – the McLaren driver got a 5 seconds time penalty.

Pierre Gasly crossed the line in P12 from a pitlane start after exceeding the engine allocation limit with a Saturday night power unit change.

Zhou Guanyu led Mick Schumacher and the reprimanded Ricciardo, while Kevin Magnussen was left on a hiding to nothing in the sole upgraded Haas after an early switch to hards before stopping twice more.

Albon landed P17 ahead of FP3 pacesetter and Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi.

Yuki Tsunoda completed the finishers after spinning from P17 to the back through the turn 6-7 chicane, as Bottas was the sole driver to retire in the final race ahead of the summer break.

So yet again Ferrari were unable to take advantage despite a higher grid positions. The strategy call made by the Scuderia was awful especially running the hard compound for Charles Leclerc. Red Bull took this opportunity to come through from P10 and win thanks to superior race pace and Max Verstappen. The season now takes a summer break but will be back at the beautiful Spa-Francorchamps track next month.

Hungarian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:39:35.912
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +7.834
3 George Russell Mercedes +12.337
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +14.579
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull +15.688
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +16.047
7 Lando Norris McLaren +78.300s
8 Fernando Alonso Alpine +1 lap
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +1 lap
11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1 lap
12 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +1 lap
13 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +1 lap
14 Mick Schumacher Haas +1 lap
15 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +1 lap
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
17 Alexander Albon Williams +1 lap
18 Nicholas Latifi Williams +1 lap
19 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +2 laps
20 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo DNF

George Russell achieved his first pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix by beating both Ferraris while championship leader Max Verstappen was taken out of contention by a power issue.

The Mercedes driver was an unlikely contender to top qualifying after the struggles in the W13 all season, not least during both dry and wet running at the Hungaroring so far this weekend.

But despite not taking a fastest sector on his critical lap, his combined runs sailed George to the top over Carlos Sainz, who had the advantage on his teammate Charles Leclerc.

But it was a session to forget for Red Bull, with Verstappen only poised to line up P10 as Sergio Perez was eliminated in Q2.

The day-long downpour that was widely predicted held off to allow qualifying to take place as scheduled on Saturday afternoon in Budapest.

It was Sainz who ended the first part of the 12-minute Q3 run on top, his first flying lap placing him half a second clear of Russell after Leclerc had messed up straight away with a snap in his F1-75 at Turn 1 as he struggled with the tyres.

With Verstappen combatting understeer to run off track at Turn 2, he ended the first run-out only seventh fastest.

The ten fastest cars then emerged with three minutes, 40 seconds to run, but Verstappen was soon complaining of no power aboard his RB18 – cycling through sensor modes not enough to remedy the problem.

With the defending champion, who leads Leclerc in the standings by 63 points, out of the picture, Sainz cycled to the top with the fastest first sector of anyone (pipping Nicholas Latifi).

That gave the British Grand Prix polesitter the bragging rights initially as Leclerc slotted in 0.15 seconds adrift, but then three personal best sectors at the death for Russell gave him an unlikely pole.

His one minute, 17.377 seconds effort pipping Sainz’s one minute, 17.421 seconds best, while Leclerc managed to keep ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris – the MCL36 impressing in dry qualifying and race simulations during FP2 on Friday.

Esteban Ocon managed to reverse the recent run of form to pip Fernando Alonso in the intra-team Alpine scrap, while Lewis Hamilton’s DRS failed to activate on his final lap to knock him to seventh.

Valtteri Bottas claimed eighth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, as Verstappen had to make do with a one minute, 18.823 seconds that left him 10ths and 1.5s adrift of the Mercedes benchmark.

Perez was the major casualty from Q2 in a strange session for the driver, his Red Bull being knocked out by a slender 0.05 seconds courtesy of the late improvements from Ocon and Bottas.

Checo complained that Kevin Magnussen’s line through the Turn 3 left-hander had ultimately cost him a place inside the top ten.

Perez had his first lap in Q2 scrubbed off for exceeding track limits at Turn 5, but it seemed a marginal call as replays showed not all four wheels crossed fully over the white lines.

Seven minutes after the fact, the lap was therefore reinstated to put him eighth. The reports of spots of rain plus a dip in track temperatures might have kept him safe enough.

But as the showers held off, the late climbs from the Alfa Romeo and Alpine dropped Perez to 11th ahead of Zhou Guanyu and Magnussen.

K-Mag aborted his final lap after missing his personal bests in sectors ones and two.

Lance Stroll, meanwhile, will start P14 ahead of the second Haas of Mick Schumacher.

Perez had already been at risk in P14 in Q1 as the chequered flag came out, but he was given respite when Pierre Gasly had his improved lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 5.

That dropped the AlphaTauri to P19, with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda also eliminated in the first part of qualifying – the Japanese driver similarly crossing the white lines earlier in the session at the same protracted right-hand bend to have to start all over again.

With Tsunoda’s final, compliant effort not enough to progress as he landed 16th, Stroll had secured his slot in Q2 by 0.35 seconds. Meanwhile, Alex Albon ran for P17 ahead of the hastily repaired Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel.

In the two-hour break between sessions, Seb had helped his crew repair the AMR22 machine following his shunt into the barriers late in FP3 that resulted in a brief red flag.

The retiring four-time champion, who appeared to struggle for balance through the final corner, ultimately landed only P18.

Latifi, the unlikely pacesetter in a slippery final practice, might have progressed into the Q2 fight when yet again he mastered the first sector to set a purple run late on.

He combined this with a personal best sector two only to suffer a spike of oversteer in the final right-hander to cost him 0.7 seconds and leave him last in qualifying – much to his frustration over team radio.

So congratulations to George Russell in scoring his first Formula 1 pole position. Carlos Sainz’s lap was great and yet Mr Saturday’s performance was just epic. What a result for Mercedes after struggling all season. This pole is much needed to boost morale.

Hungarian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:17.377
2 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:17.421
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:17.567
4 Lando Norris McLaren 1:17.769
5 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:18.018
6 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:18.078
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:18.142
8 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:18.157
9 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:18.379
10 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:18.823
11 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:18.516
12 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:18.573
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:18.825
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:19.137
15 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:19.202
16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTaur 1:19.240
17 Alex Albon Williams 1:19.256
18 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:19.273
19 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:19.527
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:19.570

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen extended his championship lead with race victory at the French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard, as Charles Leclerc crashed his Ferrari while leading the race.

At the start, Leclerc easily lead away from pole ahead of Verstappen, who initially looked like he would have to defend against Lewis Hamilton into Turn 1 as the Mercedes driver had launched straight past Sergio Perez up ahead and starting third.

But Verstappen hit the brakes latest of the top three and ran to Leclerc’s outside, but the Ferrari was under no real pressure on the racing line.

The top ten immediately pulled clear of Hamilton – exchanging fastest laps as they did so.

As soon as DRS was activated on lap three, Verstappen – who was already able to catch Leclerc on every straight with his lower drag, skinnier rear wing – really began to pressure his rival, who appeared to be struggling for rear tyre grip.

Verstappen closed the gap to a minimum of 0.5 seconds at the start of lap eight of 53 as he twice got so close running into Le Beausset he looked to attack on Leclerc’s outside.

But the Ferrari’s higher downforce, larger rear wing meant Leclerc was able to pull away through the technical sections at the start and end of the laps and a tense stalemate developed with Verstappen falling back towards one-second adrift over the next few laps.

The defending world champion was now the one seemingly struggling for grip as at one stage he slipped off the road at Turn 6, so picking up his first track limits violation, and by lap 14 he had had fallen out of DRS range as Leclerc began to increase his pace back towards where he had been lapping in the early stages.

Leclerc’s lead was heading up towards 1.5 seconds when Red Bull called Verstappen in at the end of lap 16 to switch to the hard tyres.

Ferrari, which had told Leclerc it was considering a “Plan B” strategy and that the harder tyres team-mate Carlos Sainz was running down the order after his engine-change grid penalty were still suffering from thermal degradation, did not move to immediately cover Verstappen’s stop.

But just after it had warned Leclerc to look after his mediums, the race was turned on its head when Leclerc crashed out at Le Beausset – losing the rear of his F1-75 in a mistake while running close to the edge of the track deep into the high-speed hairpin on his stressed tyre.

He rapidly spun around and went straight on into the barriers, where he fumed “I cannot go on throttle” before screaming “Nooooo!” in realisation that he was out of the race.

The incident was covered by a safety car, where Hamilton, who had seen off Perez’s early attentions to run well clear of the second Red Bull before Leclerc’s crash, led a mass visit to the pits.

He rejoined behind Verstappen and still ahead of Perez, with George Russell, Fernando Alonso and the two McLarens following in the queue ahead of Sainz.

He had risen up the order from his back row start in the early stages, but picked up a five-second penalty after his slow safety car stop ended when was released into the path of Alex Albon’s approaching Williams.

At the restart on lap 21, Verstappen easily raced clear of Hamilton and was soon in complete command up from, while the Mercedes again pulled away from Perez.

The main action in the pack was Sainz’s continued recovery drive, as he jumped by Daniel Ricciardo at Turn 1 at the restart and got Lando Norris into the Mistral straight chicane further around the lap.

On the next lap he got ahead of compatriot Alonso and then set off after Russell, who then frustrated the remaining Ferrari’s progress for several laps before the Briton’s defence at the Turns 8/9 chicane meant Sainz got a better run up the hill to Signes, where he thrilling got ahead with an around-the-outside pass.

Up front, Verstappen continued to pull clear of Hamilton and his lead had reached four-seconds by lap 32, before it soon shot up to nearly seven – mainly thanks to his pursuer subsequently having to catch an oversteer snap through the second corner and ran off the track.

From there, Verstappen was untroubled to the finish and came home with a 10.5 seconds margin of victory ahead of Hamilton, who was likewise unthreatened in second – this was despite a brief moment of worry for the leaders when Zhou Guanyu stopped in the Turn 6 runoff and triggered a brief virtual safety car.

Their advantage up front was because after his Signes pass on Russell, Sainz had closed in on Perez and pressured the Mexican driver hard for several laps as Ferrari dithered over whether to bring him in for a second time – knowing If it did he would his penalty applied tyres could be changed.

Both team and driver changed their minds on whether to come in our not, but Sainz was still out by lap 41 and he was running right behind Perez – attacking at Signes and then staying close enough to dive ahead at the final corner.

Ferrari had called him in mid-way through their scrap, but Sainz dismissed the call and shot clear – having pulled Russell along in his wake so the Mercedes was then in position to attack the grip-less Perez.

On lap 42, Russell made a late move to the inside of the Turn 8 part of the Mistral chicane and when Perez turned in the pair came close to crashing before the Red Bull scampered across Turn 9 and stayed ahead – to Russell’s frustration but with the stewards’ quickly deciding the incident did not merit investigation.

But straight after this, Ferrari then ultimately did bring Sainz in for a second stop and he re-joined ninth and with a near 30 seconds gap to try and recover – as well as repass the Norris and Alonso.

He did so quickly and showed searing pace on his way to setting the race’s fastest lap, but came home a frustrated fifth.

That was behind Perez, who lost out to Russell after the Mercedes driver jumped ahead of the Red Bull when the VSC ended as they approached the final corner and then soaked up pressure over the final three laps to seal third.

Sainz ended up 11.5 seconds behind Perez, but well clear of Alonso and Norris, with Esteban Ocon eighth after hitting Yuki Tsunoda at the Mistral straight chicane on lap one and getting a five-second penalty he served at his safety car stop for spinning the AlphaTauri around.

Ricciardo took ninth and Lance Stroll got the final point, despite Sebastian Vettel getting very close to nipping ahead on the last lap – with the chasing Aston Martin appearing to nearly hit the other when it was slow getting off the final corner’s apex.

The other non-finishers were Nicholas Latifi and Kevin Magnussen who retired in the pits shortly after they clashed at Turn 2 in the closing stages, just after the Williams had attacked the Haas at the preceding Turn 1 in an incident that will be investigated now the race has finished.

Tsunoda stopped on the same lap as Leclerc’s crash as a result of the floor damage he had picked up in the lap one clash with Ocon that had dropped him to the rear of the pack.

So congratulations to Max Verstappen in winning the French Grand Prix. This result increases his championship points lead. Feel sorry for Charles Leclerc as he was leading the race and was looking good for a race victory. But a big mistake occurred and the Ferrari ended in the wall. As for the Scuderia’s strategy with Carlos Sainz, what is going on? Not looking at the bigger picture and even with time penalty, lost some crucial points.

French Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:30:02.112
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +10.587
3 George Russell Mercedes +16.495
4 Sergio Perez Red Bull +17.310
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +28.872
6 Fernando Alonso Alpine +42.879
7 Lando Norris McLaren +52.026
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine +56.959
9 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +60.372
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +62.549
11 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +64.494
12 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +65.448
13 Alex Albon Williams +68.565
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +76.666
15 Mick Schumacher Haas +80.394s
– Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo DNF
– Nicholas Latifi Williams +6 laps
– Kevin Magnussen Haas DNF
– Charles Leclerc Ferrari DNF
– Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri DNF

Charles Leclerc beat championship rival Max Verstappen to take pole position for the French Grand Prix as Ferrari used slipstream tactics with Carlos Sainz to help capture P1.

Sergio Perez completed the top three for Red Bull as Sainz’s running on used tyres meant he qualifying ninth but will drop to the back of the grid thanks to Ferrari fitting a fresh power unit for this event after his Austria DNF.

Leclerc led after the first runs in Q3, but only by 0.008 seconds over Verstappen as the Ferraris ran line astern to try and negate Red Bull’s top speed advantage with its potent Honda engine and lower-drag rear wing.

On the second runs, Sainz again ran ahead of Leclerc in the pack, the latter dropping back ahead of the final corners on their out-laps to avoid dirty air from his teammate disrupting his progress through the opening turns.

But, as he had done on the first Q3 fliers, Sainz slowed exiting the chicane midway down the Mistral straight and then towed his teammate down the rest of the straight, through the rapid Signes right before pulling over just before Le Beausset.

Leclerc then rocketed to the fastest time in the third sector, having already beaten his previous session-leading time in sector one, to put in a one minute, 30.872 seconds.

That ended up being 0.304 seconds clear of Verstappen after the world champion could not reproduce his best times in the opening two sectors.

Behind Perez came Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris, with George Russell sixth for Mercedes.

Then came Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda, with Sainz finishing ahead of Kevin Magnussen, who did not run in Q3 as he too will drop to the back of the grid having likewise taken a new engine this weekend.

In Q2, topped by Sainz with a one minute, 31.081 seconds, Daniel Ricciardo’s personal best at the last was not enough to get into the top ten, with all of the eliminated drivers doing likewise having run ahead of the Australian, who was the last to cross the line.

Esteban Ocon had led the pack around for the final laps and did leap up the order having been in the drop zone after the first Q2 runs, but he was shuffled back to P12 ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel.

Alex Albon finished P15 for Williams – having got through to Q2 after Mick Schumacher lost his final Q1 lap to a track limits violation.

Albon had been unable to set a final Q1 time after he lost the rear of his car exiting the Turn 8 part of the chicane that breaks up the Mistral straight and spun.

In Q1, which Leclerc topped with the fastest lap of the weekend at that stage on his first flier, Pierre Gasly was knocked out in P16 ahead of Lance Stroll, who set an identical lap time right at the end of the segment but lost out because he did it second, the Aston Martin driver ruing catching traffic in the final turns.

Zhou Guanyu ended up P18 having led the pack to the chequered flag, but failed to set a personal best on his final lap after catching a wild oversteer snap through the long, fast Turn 6 right that feeds in the Turn 7 kink on the Mistral straight.

Zhou said he “nearly spun” catching the moment, with his previous personal best good enough for P18 ahead of Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi, who both set their quickest times at the end of Q1.

Schumacher’s one minute, 33.114 seconds jumped him the order and put Albon temporarily into 16th, but running too far over the white line on the inside of Turn 3 meant his effort was deleted and he had to exit the session despite Haas’s protestations about the marginal call with the FIA.

Ricciardo and Tsunoda also had their final Q1 laps deleted for track limits infractions at Turns 6 and 3 respectively, but their previous best times were enough to see them through.

So excellent team play with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in using the tow effort and helping Leclerc to take pole position. Sainz has grid penalties due to power unit changes but did a perfect job in scoring a result for Scuderia Ferrari in qualifying.

French Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:30.872
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:31.176
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:31.335
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.765
5 Lando Norris McLaren 1:32.032
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:32.131
7 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:32.552
8 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:32.780
9 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:32.922
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:33.048
11 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:33.052
12 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:33.276
13 Alex Albon Williams 1:33.307
14 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:33.439
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:33.439
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:33.674
17 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:33.701
18 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:33.794
19 Carlos Sainz Ferrari No time*
20 Kevin Magnussen Haas No time*
*Grid penalty for changing power unit