F1 takeaways: Ferrari's self-inflicting woes resume at French GP

Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing cruised to the finish line to take the French Grand Prix on Sunday.

It was the seventh victory of the season for the Red Bull Racing driver, who increased his lead in the championship to 63 points on Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes made it a double podium finish for the first time this season as Lewis Hamilton came in second followed by teammate George Russell, who fended off Red Bull's Sergio Perez in third.

As for what happened to pole-sitter Leclerc, and Ferrari in general, read on. Here are the red-hot takeaways of what you need to know from the French GP.

Just when you thought Ferrari had it all sorted out and were back on track aiming for a third consecutive victory, along comes the French Grand Prix to remind you that no, Ferrari is still Ferrari.

Pole sitter Charles Leclerc took off from the start and was comfortably in P1 when he spun out and crashed into the tire barrier on Lap 18. Are you looking like a surprised Pikachu? As shocking as that was, it's also the third time this season Leclerc has retired while in the lead — with Verstappen inheriting P1 and practically guaranteed the victory.

Leclerc blamed the throttle issue that had plagued him two weeks ago in Austria as he screamed on the radio, however, he later owned up to the mistake saying he was pushing too hard and just lost the rear of his car.

Regardless of whether it's the driver or car error, that's a GP victory and 25 points gifted to championship leader Verstappen, who's quite capable of winning on merit and doesn't need the bonus of having anything handed to him.

Ferrari's smarts helped Leclerc secure pole position during qualifying — catching a tow from Sainz that allowed him to set the fastest lap Saturday — but all that goes out the window if they can't figure it out when it really matters on Sunday.

Leclerc maintains second in the championship but the accordion-like gap has now inflated back to 63 points behind Verstappen.

Oh, we're not done with Ferrari just yet.

Kudos to Carlos Sainz for turning his grid penalty (due to power unit changes) and having to start 19th into a P5 finish. Sainz sliced through the field with a magnificent drive that earned him the Driver of the Day honour from the fans.

But it could have been better.

Sainz was hit with a five-second penalty for an unsafe release during his first pit stop as he pulled out right in front of Williams driver Alexander Albon. His team informed him on the radio he was issued a stop-and-go penalty, to which a confused Sainz was quick to correct them on the terminology.

If that wasn't bizarre enough, Sainz's team began calling him into the pits while he in the midst of a battle with Red Bull's Sergio Perez for P3 on Lap 42. Not while Sainz was threatening to make a pass, oh no, the call came during the pass. Sainz yelled back, "Not now," as he was kinda busy at the moment and didn't need them barking in his ear.

Sometimes you really have to wonder if the Ferrari crew are even watching the grand prix.

Yes, it's only the midway mark of the season but the cynics must be thinking there's still the whole second half of the year for Ferrari to find new and interesting ways to screw things up.

Ah, Mercedes and Red Bull were battling it out at the front just like the good old days ... of last year. Huh, guess it hasn't been that long ago.

The exciting battle took place between Russell and Perez. The two tangled on Lap 43 when Russell attempted to dive on the inside of a corner and Perez was forced to back off and take an alternate route in order to avoid a costly collision. As Russell complained about the lack of penalty for Perez, believing he had his opponent beat into the corner, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff came on the radio to calm his driver down.

The decisive pass came right after a late Virtual Safety Car period was lifted on Lap 51 as Perez got caught off-guard and Russell got the jump to snag the final spot on the podium. Although a furious Perez complained on his radio about Russell exceeding track limits during the final laps, no penalty was issued here either and like their earlier incident it came down to the two drivers settling things on the track.

While we've seen the Red Bulls outpace Ferrari on the track, you can't help but feel like Mercedes is overachieving at the moment. Verstappen was never threatened for the lead with Hamilton finishing 10.587 seconds back even with the Virtual Safety Car helping to shrink the gap a bit.

Russell is now just one point behind Sainz for fourth place in the standings as the British driver picked up his 11th top-five finish through 12 events. Considering Sainz passed Perez on track before his final pit stop — and scored the fastest lap bonus point — one has to wonder where the Ferrari driver would have finished had he neither started at the back of the pack due to the power unit swap nor had to serve a five-second penalty.

Ferrari's pain has not only been Red Bull's but Mercedes' gain as well. The gap in the constructors' championship between second-place Ferrari and third-place Mercedes is now closer than it is between first-place Red Bull and Ferrari.

• Ferrari will also want to look into what caused Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu to retire with only a handful of laps remaining. The team supplies engines to Alfa Romeo and if it turns out to be another power unit problem, that's something else to be concerned about. OK, that's enough piling on Ferrari for one column.

• Sunday was a day of milestones as Hamilton competed in his 300th grand prix and Fernando Alonso surpassed Kimi Raikkonen for the most laps completed with the Alpine driver now at 18,672. Alonso finished P6 to score points for the seventh consecutive grand prix. It's not quite vintage Alonso, but the two-time world champion has been quietly chipping away at the field.

• Alonso's teammate Esteban Ocon finished eighth in his home race as he was dinged a five-second penalty (served during his pit stop) for contact with AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda on the opening lap. Still, the French manufacturer Alpine had reasons to celebrate as the double points finish helped them leapfrog McLaren and into fourth place in the constructors' standings with a 93-89 point advantage. This is turning into an intriguing battle of the brands in the midfield.

• Sadly, no Guenther Steiner and boat memes this week for the Haas team principal. Mick Schumacher's first points streak ended at two races. Schumacher's weekend unravelled during qualifying when his final run during the first session was erased for exceeding track limits. The Haas driver was forced to start P15 — which is also right where he finished the race due to contact with Zhou. Meanwhile, teammate Kevin Magnussen got out to a blazing start moving up from P20 to P13 on the opening lap but an incident with Williams driver Nicholas Latifi on Lap 38 knocked both drivers out of the race.