Max Verstappen makes title race admission after extending lead at French Grand Prix

Verstappen now has a 62-point Championship lead after winning the French Grand Prix and Charles Leclerc’s retirement

Max Verstappen admits his 62-point Championship lead is “bigger than what it should be” after Charles Leclerc’s retirement at the French Grand Prix.

Having held off an early challenge from Verstappen at Circuit Paul Ricard, Leclerc pushed too hard and crashed on lap-18, blowing an opportunity to cut the world champion’s lead at the top of the standings.

Verstappen then cruised to a seventh victory of the season ahead of Lewis Hamilton, extending his lead ahead of the final race before the summer break, in Hungary this weekend.

Despite the healthy advantage, Verstappen said after the race that Budapest will be a “struggle” for Red Bull and is refusing to get carried away despite his lead after 12 races.

“Of course, it’s a great lead but a lot of things can happen and I just want to stay focused; we need a lot more good results, a lot more one-lap pace,” Verstappen said.

“The next race is Budapest, and I think that will be a bit more of a struggle for us, where I think Ferrari is going to be really, really quick. It’s all about scoring points every single race, even when it’s not your race.

“From our side, we know that we have to find, especially over one lap, quite a bit of performance. We’ll be working on it. It’s still important to always score points, even on a bad day, which we had in Austria.

“Of course, the lead we have is great, but it’s probably a bit bigger than what it should have been when you look at the car performances between the two cars.”

While Verstappen finished on top of the podium, Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez finished fourth having been overtaken by George Russell in the final few laps, losing out at the end of the virtual safety car period.