French Grand Prix – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has taken pole position for the French Grand Prix, ahead of Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
Verstappen initially got provisional pole on his first run and extended his advantage on his second attempt to set a time of 1:29.990. Hamilton lines up on the front row, having appeared to struggle against his teammate Bottas through the weekend. The Briton was a quarter of a second off the Dutchman’s benchmark.
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The red flags were brought out to deal with an incident with Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who hit the wall after losing it the exit of Turn 1. The Alpha Tauri mechanics will have a job on their hands as the car was seen to be oscillating wildly at the rear.
Haas driver Mick Schumacher who suffered a similar fate and brought out a second set of red flags after hitting the wall allowing both he and Williams’s George Russell into Q2. Schumacher will start 15th being unable to take part in Q2 whilst Russell lines up one place ahead in 14th.
Sergio Perez is in the mix in the sister Red Bull and will start fourth on the grid, just a tenth off Bottas’s time in third.
Carlos Sainz impressed for Ferrari and will start in fifth ahead of Sundays’ race. The Spaniard narrowly beat local man Pierre Gasly in the Alpha Tauri who had it all to do on his second run having his first attempt deleted for exceeding track limits.
Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari lines up in seventh on the grid. The Monegasque appeared to struggle in the session and complained of oversteer throughout qualifying. However, Ferrari line up ahead of McLaren with Lando Norris starting in eight place on the grid. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo will start tenth. Fernando Alonso for Alpine will start in ninth.
