Verstappen secures an impressive pole position ahead of the 2021 F1 French Grand Prix

Max Verstappen set a fantastic 1:29.990 lap time to get himself onto pole position for the French Grand Prix. The Dutchman will be joined on the front row by Championship rival Lewis Hamilton with Valtteri Bottas directly behind him in third.

Sergio Perez starts on the second row from fourth with Carlos Sainz the lead Ferrari car in fifth. Pierre Gasly qualified inside the top 10 for a third consecutive race as the AlphaTauri will start from sixth ahead of the second Ferrari car of Charles Leclerc in seventh. Lando Norris qualified in eighth ahead of Fernando Alonso in ninth and Daniel Ricciardo in 10th.

In his home Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon narrowly missed out on the top 10 as he will start from 11th with Sebastian Vettel in 12th, Antonio Giovinazzi in 13th, George Russell in 14th and Mick Schumacher in a fantastic 15th for Haas.

Nicholas Latifi missed out by two-thousandths of a second on a Q2 appearance as he qualified in 16th with Kimi Raikkonen in 17th, Nikita Mazepin in 18th, Lance Stroll in 19th and Yuki Tsunoda will start from 20th after his early crash in Q1.

Q1

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Giovinazzi was the first driver out of the pit lane as the Italian led a pack of six cars out for their first flying laps of the session.

The session was stopped abruptly as the red flag was waved. Tsunoda ended up in the barrier after he spun and beached his car in the barrier.

Once the drivers saw the green light at the end of the pit lane, Leclerc led them back out onto the track as no lap times were set at that point.

The Monegasque driver was the first to set a lap time with a 1:33.187 but he was quickly relegated down from the top spot as teammate Sainz went almost a second faster.

Bottas would then go six-tenths quicker than the Spaniard with Verstappen claiming first not long after that as he set a 1:31.001.

With five minutes to go, Verstappen was first as the Dutchman was over two-tenths ahead of Hamilton in second and over half a second faster than Perez in third.

The red flag was brought out once again as Schumacher found himself in the barrier with the Haas driver through to Q2 but would not participate due to the damage inflicted to his car.

Nicholas Latifi, Kimi Raikkonen, Nikita Mazepin, Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda were knocked out of Q1 as the Williams driver missed out on Q2 by a narrow margin of two-thousandths of a second.

Q2

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The second qualifying session started as Gasly was the first man out of the pits. The Frenchman was on the lookout for a third consecutive top 10 appearance as he continued his fantastic qualifying form.

The AlphaTauri driver set a 1:31.353 as Sainz stole the top spot from Gasly instantly with the Spaniard going two-tenths faster.

Red Bull jumped up to P1 and P2 early on in Q2 as Perez was ahead of Verstappen by over a tenth of a second.

Five minutes remained and Hamilton was the first driver in the 1:30’s as he lifted his Mercedes into first ahead of the Red Bull pair of Perez and Verstappen in second and third.

It was Bottas who was quickest at the end of the session with a 1:30.735 lap time helping the Finn outpace his Mercedes teammate.

Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi, George Russell and Mick Schumacher were all knocked out of Q2 as the top 10 drivers prepared themselves for Q3.

Q3

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The drivers re-emerged out of the pits for the final time to set their quickest laps that would set the top 10 for Sunday’s race.

Gasly was the first driver to set a lap time but it was deleted due to the Frenchman exceeding track limits at turn six. Ricciardo was the next driver to over the line as he set 1:31.633, however, Sainz would claim provisional pole by five-tenths.

With five minutes left in the session, Verstappen was on pole position with a 1:30.325 lap time. The Dutchman was ahead of Hamilton in second and teammate Perez in third.

Three minutes remained and all 10 drivers were out of the pit lane to warm up their tyres ahead of their final runs in Q3.

Verstappen extended his advantage at the top as he claimed pole position. Hamilton’s Mercedes was able to get on the front row alongside the Dutchman as the seven-time world champion pipped Bottas to second.

The Finn starts on the second row alongside Perez with Sainz and Gasly on the third row. Leclerc qualified seventh ahead of the McLaren of Norris in eighth as Alonso and Ricciardo line up on the fifth row after they qualified in ninth and 10th.

What’s Next?

It will be Max Verstappen who will have a clean track ahead of him as the Dutchman starts from pole position for the second time this season.

With both Mercedes behind him in second and third, he will hope that teammate Perez is able to provide some help with the Mexican alongside Bottas on the second row of the grid.

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