Red Bull’s Max Verstappen clinches 2021 French GP pole ahead of his championship rival Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
“No points are scored today, but we have to finish it off tomorrow, and try and get the 25 points we lost in Baku” said Verstappen after taking his fifth career pole.
Verstappen set the early pace in Q3, four tenths of a second quicker than Hamilton, but things heated up in the second runs as Hamilton went quickest in the first sector. Verstappen responded with a purple second and final sector to better his time and take his second pole of the season with a 1:29.990 lap.
Hamilton slotted into second, alongside the Dutchman, with Valtteri Bottas taking third as Mercedes confirmed a bounce back in performance after two very difficult weekends in Monaco and Azerbaijan.
The Brit will start second for the fourth time in seven races, with Bottas showing a return to form as a rear-gunner, beating the second Red Bull of Perez to give Mercedes a greater chance of attacking Verstappen with two cars on Sunday.
Sergio Perez was a fourth, albeit it half a second adrift of Red Bull team mate Verstappen, while Carlos Sainz outqualified the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc for only the second time this season as he ended up fifth.
Pierre Gasly gave the French fans in the grandstands plenty to smile about with sixth, in what is his fifth top-six starting spot in seven Grand Prix weekends this year. Leclerc, pole-sitter in the last two races, could only manage seventh as he was beaten by a team mate for the first time at Paul Ricard.
It was a tougher day for McLaren, as while they got both cars into Q3, they were down towards the bottom of the pile with Lando Norris eighth and Daniel Ricciardo a tenth further back in 10th.
They were separated by Fernando Alonso, the sole representative for Alpine in Q3 in the team’s home race, with the Spaniard making it four Q3 appearances in seven this season. His team mate and home favorite Ocon will start 11th.
Q2 – Ocon misses the cut, Medium tyre is the top choice for race start
Mediums were the compound of choice in Q2, with the field keen to get through on that rubber to avoid having to start on the soft and more than likely have to do a two-stop rather than one-stop strategy.
Home favourite Esteban Ocon was just 0.1s off making it into Q3 after the first runs and he wasn’t able to improve sufficiently on his next run, meaning he’ll start 11th, one place ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel.
Antonio Giovinazzi was the leading Alfa Romeo in 13th, with George Russell and Schumacher – who took no part – the other drivers to exit at the Q2 stage. Mick was qualified into Q2 for the first time in his career but his qualifying ended early after touching barriers during final runs in Q1.
Dropped out: Ocon, Vettel, Giovinazzi, Russell, Schumacher
Q1 – Tsunoda crash and Stroll & Kimi misses out
Just six minutes into the session, Yuki Tsunoda lost control of his AlphaTauri at Turn 2 and slid into the barriers causing red flag. Tsunoda was then unable to find a gear so was forced to climb out of the car, while the marshals brought out a truck to get it back to the pits.
The Young Japanese set to start Sunday’s race from the back of the grid, at the stewards’ discretion.
Elsewhere, Lance Stroll had his first lap time deleted for exceeding track limits. He bolted on a fresh set of tyres for a second run, but backed out of it with just two minutes to go, leaving him with one shot to get to Q2.
Unfortunately for the Canadian, he didn’t get that chance as another red flag forced to abort the session prematurely, caused by spinning Mick Schumacher crashed into barriers.
Dropped out: Latifi, Raikkonen, Mazepin, Stroll, Tsunoda
[…] Martin Cognizant Formula One Team’s Sebastian Vettel will start the 2021 French Grand Prix from 12th on the grid while his teammate Lance will start the race in 19th after a disrupted Q1 that featured two red […]