Ferrari again fail to convert potential into points as Leclerc’s mistake gifts Verstappen victory in France

Charles Leclerc did not need telling. Having held off Max Verstappen’s early onslaught superbly in a stiflingly hot French Grand Prix, the Monegasque’s perfect weekend in the south of France came crashing down. Quite literally.

Pushing unnecessarily hard in a Ferrari which, despite its raw pace, has proved a handful this season, the Championship contender lost the rear and spun off the track and out of the race at the Beausset right-hander. A lap-19 gift for Verstappen, who then cruised to a seventh victory of the season at Circuit Paul Ricard and extends his title lead to a whopping 63 points.

Screaming “Nooooo” in the cockpit of his stricken Ferrari, 24-year-old Leclerc made no excuses in the pen afterwards: “I feel like I am performing at the highest level of my career, but there is no point in performing at a high level if I make those mistakes.

“I lost 25 points here as it was likely I was going to win, and seven in Imola because of my mistake. So at the end of the year if there are 32 points missing then I know it has come from me, and I did not deserve to win the championship. I know I need to get on top of things if I want to be a world champion.”

Speaking of world champions, Leclerc’s clumsiness opened the door too for Lewis Hamilton – playing the role of ultimate opportunist in 2022 – to record his highest finish of the season on a weekend he became the sixth man to reach 300 Grands Prix.

In an upgraded Mercedes which is still short of Red Bull and Ferrari for pure speed but continues to secure points on race-day, the seven-time title winner came home comfortably in second with teammate George Russell third after catching Sergio Perez off-guard during a late virtual safety car period. Two Silver Arrows on the podium for the first time in 2022, a glimmer of light in a challenging year thus far.

“What a day, what a weekend, just so proud of the team,” Hamilton said, after his fourth podium in a row. "Getting results like this is about the whole package, we know we don’t have the pace but reliability is a fundamental part of the process. George did a great job and it’s really special for us.”

While Perez had a day to forget having lost his No 3 spot first at the start of the race to Hamilton and then later on to Russell, it was a mixed day for the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, starting from P19 as a result of taking a new engine.

Storming through the field early on and capitalising on the safety car triggered by his teammate’s crash, the Spaniard was embroiled in a fiery exchange with his pit wall over whether to pit for new tyres while in battle with Perez for a podium finish. Sainz needed to serve a five-second penalty for an unsafe release in his first stop and, with one car already in the garage, Ferrari played it safe and pitted their man again for fresh rubber.

With the confusion playing out over the airwaves, Sainz – who finished in fifth and set the fastest lap – defended his team’s indecision valiantly afterwards. Yet in a season which now sees Red Bull pulling away in top spot and Ferrari looking over their shoulders to a rejuvenated Mercedes, the Prancing Horse needs to arrest a streak of errors both at the wheel and on the pit wall to convert their potential into points over the course of a season which is slipping through their fingers.