Max Verstappen has fulfilled his favorite role for pole position on the Paul Ricard circuit. After all, the Dutchman captured pole position for the French GP and continues to put pressure on Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton.
During the last practice session, Max Verstappen had given his business card by going no less than seven tenths faster than first pursuer Valtteri Bottas. Verstappen was therefore the big favorite to conquer pole position during qualifying.
Qualifying was only a few minutes away, however, when we got a red flag because the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda lost control of his car in the first two corners and ended up in the crash barriers.
No driver had already set a fast lap time at that time and it was therefore necessary to queue in the pit lane to get back on track as quickly as possible when qualifying was restarted.
Verstappen confirmed his good form at the Paul Ricard circuit by setting the fastest time.
Mick Schumacher fared less well. The son of F1 legend Michael Schumacher drove a good time for Q2 but spun off the track and ended up in the guardrails with his Haas F1 car.
Schumacher was visibly disappointed but so were Aston Martin where Lance Stroll was eliminated by the red flag. Stroll saw his first fast lap canceled due to not respecting the track limits.
Mick Schumacher was unable to participate in Q2 due to his crash and as a result we only got fourteen drivers on track.
At the end of Q2 we saw Bottas and Hamilton in the Mercedes at the very top with Sergio Perez in third and fourth place and Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. Did we have a super exciting battle for pole in Q3?
During the first fast run we saw Max Verstappen being the first of the top riders to set a best time. Verstappen drove to a time of 1:30.325 and was almost four tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton. So provisional pole position for Max Verstappen, but we still got an ultimate second run.
We got a very exciting end to qualifying in which all the top riders were improving their lap times. However, it was a sublime Verstappen who took pole position with a time of 1:29.990, ahead of the Mercedes duo Hamilton and Bottas.
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:31.001s 1:31.080s 1:29.990s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.237s 1:30.788s 1:30.248s
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:31.669s 1:30.735s 1:30.376s
4 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1: 31.560s 1: 30.971s 1: 30.445s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1: 32.079s 1: 31.146s 1: 30.840s
6 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:31.898s 1:31.353s 1:30.868s
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1: 32.209s 1: 31.567s 1: 30.987s
8 Lando Norris McLaren 1:31.733s 1:31.542s 1:31.252s
9 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:32.158s 1:31.549s 1:31.340s
10 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:32.181s 1:31.615s 1:31.382s
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:32.139s 1:31.736s
12 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:32.132s 1:31.767s
13 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1: 32.722s 1: 31.813s
14 George Russell Williams 1:33.060s 1:32.065s
15 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:32.942s
16 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:33.062s
17 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo 1: 33.354s
18 Nikita Mazepin Haas 1:33.554s
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 2:12.584s
20 Yuki Tsunoda Alpha Tauri
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