Verstappen sprints, Ferraris get in the way

Max Verstappen was never disturbed in this sprint race, led from start to finish. It must be said that behind, the Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz attacked and therefore embarrassed.

After Leclerc lost his 2nd place at the start where he was crushed by Verstappen, the Monegasque recovered quickly when Sainz, too optimistic, missed by leading an attack on Verstappen at turn 2.

Subsequently, while Leclerc wanted to preserve his tires at the start of the race to put the package in the final rush, he did not really have the opportunity since his teammate Sainz was very aggressive. Leclerc defended himself but a few precious seconds were lost in the battle. We even came close to correctional braking in turn 2 when Sainz, locking his wheels, did not go far from hitting him.

At the end of the race, Leclerc picked up the pace and came back to within 1.6 of Verstappen, but who tells us that things would not have been different with a strategy carried out as planned? After Silverstone, the internal war seems to be taking shape between Leclerc and Sainz, the second having the (legitimate) ambition to assert themselves against the Monegasque. The relative coldness coming down from the cockpit between the two men is now palpable. It is a dangerous and potentially devastating game in which Ferrari is advance, and which in any case does Verstappen’s business.

Sainz finished 3rd 5”6 from the winner, nearly eight seconds ahead of a George Russell who rode alone throughout the 23 laps of the race. 5th, Sergio Perez (Red Bull) once again gave us a nice comeback, from 13th place, from which he had to start after his penalty received for exceeding the limits of the circuit in practice. He is ahead of the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, 6th, while Fernando Alonso could not even race because of a new reliability concern. Kevin Magnussen is 7th ahead of Lewis Hamilton who struggled to overcome Mick Schumache’s second Haas, finding the opening on lap 21, when the German came out of his teammate’s DRS zone.

From an accounting point of view, no big change. Verstappen has 189 points while Leclerc returns to 6 lengths from Perez (151 at the Mexican, 145 at the Monegasque).

Ferrari takes only one small point from Red Bull and remains at a good distance, 340 to 278. Interesting operation from ALpine which, thanks to Ocon’s P6, is 3 points behind McLaren.