Checo Pérez greets the fans during the French Grand Prix.CHRISTOPHE SIMON (AFP)
Checo Pérez was not fine in the French Grand Prix.
The Mexican had a race in which he was so focused on defending that he was run over and finished fourth after the insistence of George Russell's Mercedes, who took the podium from him in the last three laps.
A lot of anger for the Mexican and also for the Monegasque Charles Leclerc who could not finish the race.
Max Verstappen was left with the glory followed by Lewis Hamilton.
"It was a difficult race, guys," the Mexican lamented on the radio with the engineer.
The weekend for Checo Pérez had started a bit slow with problems in practice.
On Saturday he managed to qualify in a privileged position, third, to be able to take advantage of the fact that Carlos Sainz Jr. had gone to the bottom of the classification due to a penalty.
The Mexican, however, had a bad start this Sunday when he lost to Hamilton, the great Formula 1 champion, for not handling the car well.
In the first five laps, the one from Guadalajara did not detach himself from the British to be able to recover the position.
Verstappen attacked Leclerc in the same way.
That seemed to be the moment for Red Bull.
The British driver took the advantage of Pérez lap after lap until he was more than three seconds away and causing him difficulties.
The strategy was to try to overtake but without mistreating the car.
In Red Bull Vestappen was asked to change tires on lap 17 to try to speed up the strategy and misfortune for Ferrari's rivals occurred unexpectedly.
Leader Leclerc lost control of the car in a corner and deprived him of the entire race.
What a blow for the Italian team, a great respite for those of the energy drink.
This meant that the Mexican could change tires and the distances against Hamilton were shortened, although he also had to be careful that the other Mercedes, Russell, did not approach him.
And a little further behind Sainz.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen celebrates his victory this Sunday at the French Grand Prix, held at the Paul Ricard circuit, in Le Castellet.Eric Gaillard (AP)
Max Verstappen has been the winner of the French Grand Prix.
In the image, the Dutch Red Bull driver, during the race. SARAH MEYSSONNIER (REUTERS)
Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz overtakes AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly during this Sunday's race. YARA NARDI (REUTERS)
Members of the Ferrari technical team monitor the race from the team's 'pitwall', on Saturday during the Formula 1 French Grand Prix. AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)
Lewis Hamilton at the wheel of his Mercedes single-seater, was shooting this Sunday at the French circuit. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
Williams' Nicholas Latifi was riding this Sunday at the Paul Ricard circuit.
SEBASTIEN NOGIER (EFE)
The Mexican driver of the Red Bull team, Sergio Pérez, this Sunday during the French Grand Prix. AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)
Fernando Alonso, in his Alpine single-seater, in Le Castellet (France).
AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)
Carlos Sainz, in his Ferrari, on Saturday at the Paul Ricard circuit, in Le Castellet. AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)
Hamilton again took off from the Mexican and he suffered to defend himself from the Spanish driver who came with a comeback plan and redemption by the
Scuderia
.
On lap 40, Sainz told his engineer that he couldn't overtake Pérez.
Pure deception.
The Spaniard overtook him at the start of lap 42 with a great maneuver against a defenseless Mexican who was approached by an aggressive Russell who took him out of the lane in a tricky move.
The one from Mercedes insisted that the Mexican had made a bad move.
Later, the pleasure of the Ferrari driver did not last long and he had to go to the pits and pay a penalty.
The last laps were overwhelming for the Mexican who now had a furious Russell on top of him.
A mistake by the Chinese Guanyu Zhou caused a
virtual safety car
, when the drivers have to be more careful, and that's where the Mexican had problems to fully apply the accelerator.
The Mexican complained that he was not properly informed of the restart of the race.
End of the battle: the young man from Mercedes took out his wallet and the podium.
Verstappen remains at the top of the world championship with 233 points, followed by Leclerc with 170 and Pérez with 163.
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