Mayra Madrigal
The French GP was a great race that gave us great stories, which we’ll store in our memories. The fights for the first places, for the points, as well as the accidents and mistakes of the teams, were not lacking, adding a distinct flavor to the 12th date of the 2022 Formula 1 season.
Red Bull and Ferrari were the favorites to win the French GP ,and it was the Austrian team that performed better and ended up taking the win thanks to Dutchman Max Verstappen. The podium was completed by Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Here’s what happened at the 2022 French GP.
Max Verstappen Back to Winning Ways
The Formula 1 world champion returned to win a race after failing to do so in the previous two dates of the 2022 calendar. He had a good performance from free practice and in qualifying he managed to place second, to start from the first line of the grid.
Red Bull’s strategy and Verstappen’s driving combined to take advantage of Charles Leclerc’s retirement to take first place. He reached 233 points to continue leading the drivers’ championship, after scoring his seventh victory of the season.
Mercedes double podium finish
The surprise of the French GP was the double podium finish by Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. They had done a great job on track before the race, thanks to the improvements made to the cars.
Lewis Hamilton started from fourth on the starting grid and managed to finish in second position, achieving his fourth consecutive podium, and for the first time a second place this season. On the other hand, George Russell, who started from sixth place, fought until the end and in the last laps managed to take over third place.
All-time lap record for Fernando Alonso
Spanish driver Fernando Alonso had a great race in the French GP and wrote down one more record in the Formula 1 history books. At the British Grand Prix, Alonso became the driver with the most kilometers driven in the highest category of motor racing with more than 92,643 kilometers.
At the Circuit Paul Ricard, he became the driver who has completed the most laps in F1, surpassing the record of 18,621 laps that belonged to Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen. Alonso was able to celebrate this record with a sixth place finish that allowed him to score eight more points this season.
Carlos Sainz’s Comeback
Ferrari was one of the candidates to win this Grand Prix, but only Carlos Sainz managed to finish the race. The Spanish driver had a great performance this weekend, but a team error prevented him from finishing on the podium. In the end, he finished in fifth place, which was the Italian team’s best result this weekend.
Sainz moved up from #19 to #5 and was named driver of the day for his performance. He remains in fourth place in the drivers’ championship with 144 points.
Charles Leclerc Retires Again
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc took pole position in qualifying, but his efforts were thwarted when he crashed and had to abandon the race. Wear on one of his tires caused him to spin on lap #18 of the 2022 French GP.
Despite not being able to score points, the Monaco-born driver remains in second place in the drivers’ championship with 170 points, but is getting further and further behind Verstappen.
