Crazy duel: Verstappen cooks Hamilton

After a stroke of tactical genius, the Dutchman snatched victory in the Red Bull on Sunday in Le Castellet with an overtaking maneuver on the penultimate lap. Hamilton had to admit defeat after leading for a long time and only crossed the finish line in second place for the first time on this route. Verstappen is now twelve points ahead in the overall standings. The Mexican Sergio Perez came third in the second Red Bull.

In the two races after Formula 1 returned to the Circuit Paul Ricard, Mercedes dominated at will. Hamilton won from pole position in 2018 and 2019. Last year the French Grand Prix was canceled due to the corona pandemic. This time, 15 spectators were allowed to be there per day - and they saw that Hamilton in particular could not keep up with Verstappen in training and qualification. “A black eye,” said team boss Toto Wolff, calling second place on the grid for Hamilton, which was only achieved thanks to a complete conversion of the Silver Arrow.

Shortly after the start, however, Verstappen gave away his hard-earned advantage on the track that is traditionally less suited to Red Bull. In the first corner, the 23-year-old lost control of his car, swerved off the track and had to let Hamilton pass. Horrified, the Red Bull crew in the garage lowered their hands that had been raised to clap. Tactical brilliant performance at Red Bull Not much changed behind that. Bottas started the pursuit in third place, Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull struggled to catch up with the top trio in fourth place. Given the limited overtaking opportunities on the unusual, colorful track not far from the Mediterranean, the racing action was initially limited. But Mercedes then gambled away with the strategy. Thanks to an earlier change and a quick lap afterwards, Verstappen was able to pass Hamilton as he came out of the pit lane. “We don’t know exactly what went wrong,” the command post radioed to the astonished Hamilton. The series champion angrily tried to attack, closely followed by Bottas' helper.

Powered by a fresh engine unit, Verstappen held his own in front of the Mercedes duo. For laps he defended himself with strong nerves against the pushing Hamilton, but it wasn't easy on the tires. “We can’t keep this up until the end, that’s for sure,” the Dutchman told his engineers. Red Bull promptly changed tactics and brought Verstappen in to change his tires again.

Now the young star was chasing the two Mercedes drivers. Verstappen was significantly faster on the fresh tires, but there was a long way to go. Then Bottas helped with a mistake. Verstappen took action, on the 45th lap he only had Hamilton in front of him. And indeed, the tactic worked. Shortly before the end, Hamilton could no longer defend himself, Verstappen pulled away and triumphed. The result at a glance:

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Crazy duel: Verstappen cooks Hamilton

In the crazy chase in France, Max Verstappen surprised his World Cup opponent Lewis Hamilton and extended his Formula 1 lead.

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