19 June 2021 Sat: F1 Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton by almost three tenths of a second to claim pole position for tomorrow’s 2021 FIA Formula 1 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard. Valtteri Bottas took will line up in third place on the grid ahead of Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Pérez for the Round 7 FIA Formula One World Championship on Saturday.

Defending champion Lewis Hamilton (in the pic) said: It's great to see the fans here and it warms my heart to see people coming together finally after this difficult period for us all. It's been a really hard weekend trying to get the car into a happy place and you wouldn't believe all of the changes I've made since FP1. Congratulations to Max, he did a great job today. On long run pace I think the Red Bulls were a tenth or two quicker than us in FP2 but my car is in a much different place now so I'm just going to stay hopeful and do everything that I can tomorrow. Obviously in second you've got a fighting chance down to Turn 1 and there's going to be some interesting strategy calls tomorrow. Maybe it'll rain so we'll potentially get to see the rain masters do their thing! We're loving the battle so we're just going to keep pushing, keep fighting, and giving it everything. 

The opening Q1 segment got off to a stuttering start and the hour-long session was barely three minutes old when the action had to halted. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda tried too too much kerb in Turn 1 and spun. He slide backwards off track in Turn 2 and hit the barriers. Apart from severe vibrations at the rear of his car as hew slid across the run-off the impact to the back of his car did not seem bad but after reporting that he had no gears race control red-flagged the session.

After a 10-minute delay the action resumed and Verstappen vaulted to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:31.001, eclipsing Bottas by more than six tenths of a second. Pérez then shuffled the Finn down to third place ahead of Hamilton. The Briton made a second attempt, however, and his improved lap time of 1:31.237 earned him P3 ahead of Pérez.

In the final moments of the session Haas’ Mick Schumacher crashed at Turn 6 and the red flags were shown for the second time and race control announced that with less than a minute on the clock the session would not be restarted. The stoppage meant that a number of drivers were not able to complete final flying laps and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen, Haas’ Nikita Mazepin and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll were eliminated without getting an opportunity to escape the drop zone.

In Q2 the majority of the remaining field headed out on medium tyres and in the first runs Pérez took an early lead with a lap of 1:30.971, a tenth ahead of Verstappen. Hamilton, who sat sixth after his first flying lap extended his run for a second attempt and he duly took top spot with a lap of 1:30.959.

Both Red Bulls and both Mercedes drivers went out for the final runs but while Bottas and Hamilton completed another medium-tyre flyer, with Bottas taking top spot on 1:30.735 and Hamilton improving, both Pérez, and Verstappen backed out of their laps leaving the top two placings to the Mercedes pair.

Eliminated at the end of Q2 were Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel exiting in P12 ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Williams’ George Russell.

In the first runs of Q3 Verstappen seized an early advantage, claiming provisional pole with a lap of 1:30.325, almost four tenths of a second ahead of Hamilton who slotted into P2. Pérez grabbed P3 a little under two tenths clear of Bottas.

But if there were any thoughts that the final runs would be a comfortable march to pole for the Dutchman they were dismissed as Verstappen and his chief title rival raised the level again in the final runs.

The pair traded purple sectors across through but when Verstappen crossed the line it was in a time of 1:29.990, 0.258 seconds ahead of Hamilton, and a fifth career pole position belonged to the Red Bull driver.

Bottas jumped ahead of Pérez in the final run and the Mexican will start fourth ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, AlphjaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Lando Norris will start in P8 for McLaren ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo.

2021 FIA Formula 1 French Grand Prix – Qualifying1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:29.990 6 233.7052 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:30.248 0.258 0.287 6 233.0373 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:30.376 0.386 0.429 6 232.7074 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda 1:30.445 0.455 0.506 6 232.5305 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:30.840 0.850 0.945 6 231.5196 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:30.868 0.878 0.976 6 231.4477 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:30.987 0.997 1.108 6 231.1458 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:31.252 1.262 1.402 6 230.4739 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:31.340 1.350 1.500 6 230.25110 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1:31.382 1.392 1.547 6 230.14511 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:31.736 1.001 1.103 6 229.25712 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:31.767 1.032 1.137 6 229.18013 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:31.813 1.078 1.188 6 229.06514 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:32.065 1.330 1.466 6 228.43815 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1:32.942 1.941 2.133 7 226.28316 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:33.062 2.061 2.265 7 225.99117 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:33.354 2.353 2.586 7 225.28418 Nikita Mazepin Haas/Ferrari 1:33.554 2.553 2.805 7 224.802Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 2'12.584 41.583 45.695 7 158.625Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Honda 2