Losers

Pierre Gasly 

Gasly endured a torrid home weekend which looked promising after AlphaTauri introduced their new upgrade pack🦩age.

The Frenchman was knocked out in Q1 and t⛦he decision to 🌄start on the hards proved costly due to the untimely Safety Car.

Unfortunately for Gasly, neither he nor ꦜAlphaTauri have lived up to expectations so far in 2022, particularly compared to last year when he was consistently in the top six.

Charles Leclerc & Ferrari 

Another majo💫r blow to Leclerc and Ferrari’s title✨ ambitions this year.

Leclerc’s shunt on Lap 18 from the race lead was compounded by the team’s confusing strategy with the recovering Carlo💙s Sain✱z, who started from the back of the grid due to engine penalties.

Sunday’s race epitomised Ferrari’s season so far and why they’re so far behind Vers꧅tappen and ♒Red Bull.

Sergio Perez

A shocking weekend for Perez who looked out of sor🍸ts up until qualifying.

Perez lost out to Hamilton a💛t th🍬e start and despite having race-winning machinery, struggled to compete with the seven-time champion.

ℱHe was then caught nappi🧜ng by Russell on the Virtual Safety Car restart, dropping to fourth.

It should have been a♓ 1-2 finish for Red Bull given the issues for Leclerc and Sai🌸nz.

Alfa Romeo

After a promising start to the season, competing with McLaren and Alpine for fourth in the constructors’ ꦆchaꦅmpionship, Alfa Romeo keep going backwards.

Not only in the development race, but their new clutch system for this weekend, developed by Ferrari,🍸 didn’t seem to work.

Starting f𒉰rom 11th on the grid, Bottas dropped to 17th on the opening la🍒p.

Alfa Romeo⛎ need to pick up their form again soon with Haas not too far behind and expected to introduce a sizeable upgrade in Hungary.

Winners

Max Verstappen

Another perfect day for the reigning ⭕F1 world champion as he moved 63 po🐻ints clear of Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ championship. 

A second drivers’ title is a near-certaint💟y on current form with Verstappen’s incredible consistency and erro🧸r-free driving putting him well clear of the rest.

Before Leclerc’s DNF, the race was in the balance with Ver♛stappen stopping early to get track position over his rival.

Leclerc would have st🎃opped later and rejoined behind the Dutchman, ♒although on significantly fresher tyres.

Would he have ove🉐rtaken the Red Bull driver? Who knows how it would have played out. 

Regardless, it was another classy performancไe from Verstappen ahead of F1’s race 🍸at the Hungaroring, a track that no doubt will favour Ferrari.

Mercedes

Remarkably, Mercedes’✤ 2-3 finish at Paul Ricard is their firs🗹t double podium finish of the season.

Expectations were high for the eight-time champions going into the weekend but they didn’t live up to them as Lewis𒁃 Hamilton qualified nearly one whole second off pole position.

However, race day was more encouraging for the team given that both Hamilton and G🥃eorge Russell beat Sergio Perez on merit.

Hamilton was able to stick with Verstappen fairly well albeit lacking a couple of tenths to really challenge for the victor🐭y.

Alpine

Alpine moved into fourth in the constructors’ championship after another tidy race from Fernando Alonsoꦚ.

In typical Alonso fashion, the Spaniard was fast off the line on the opening lap, moving up to fifth ahea💯d of Mercedes’ George Russell.

Once the race settled down, Alons🦋o was comfortable in sixth ahead of McLaren’s L🐼ando Norris.

On the other side of the ga💃rage, Esteban Ocon continued his consistent r🐼un of finishing in the points with eighth, overtaking the other McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo late on.

Lance Stroll

It was a welcome return to♛ the points for Stroll at the French Grand Prix. 

ꦐThe Canadian made a storming start from 15th on ༒the grid, running in 10th for the opening phase of the race. 

Stroll maintained that position until the end of the race, defending ﷺfrom Aston Martin teammate Sebastian Vettel.

While his defence received some criticism from fans after🌠 the race, it was smart from Stroll to keep the position on the final lap at his teammate’s expense.