Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the French Grand Prix on Saturday but the remaining questions is, does the Red Bull have the race pace over Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes?
Lewis and his teammate, Valtteri Bottas claimed second and third with Max’s teammate in 4th. Race pace will be a key but the teammate battles and how Mercedes and Red Bull run their strategy may be very intriguing on Sunday.
Carlos Sainz pulled a great qualifying lap out of his hap besting teammate Charles Leclerc and giving Ferrari the edge over their closest rival, McLaren. Pierre Gasly, once again, being a complete overachiever and dragging his Alpha Tauri up to 6th in a fantastic qualifying performance.
Qualifying Results:
| Pos | Name | Car | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda | 1m31.001s | 1m31.08s | 1m29.99s |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m31.237s | 1m30.788s | 1m30.248s |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1m31.669s | 1m30.735s | 1m30.376s |
| 4 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull-Honda | 1m31.56s | 1m30.971s | 1m30.445s |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 1m32.079s | 1m31.146s | 1m30.84s |
| 6 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri-Honda | 1m31.898s | 1m31.353s | 1m30.868s |
| 7 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m32.209s | 1m31.567s | 1m30.987s |
| 8 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m31.733s | 1m31.542s | 1m31.252s |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine-Renault | 1m32.158s | 1m31.549s | 1m31.34s |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren-Mercedes | 1m32.181s | 1m31.615s | 1m31.382s |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | 1m32.139s | 1m31.736s | |
| 12 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin-Mercedes | 1m32.132s | 1m31.767s | |
| 13 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1m32.722s | 1m31.813s | |
| 14 | George Russell | Williams-Mercedes | 1m33.06s | 1m32.065s | |
| 15 | Mick Schumacher | Haas-Ferrari | 1m32.942s | ||
| 16 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams-Mercedes | 1m33.062s | ||
| 17 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo-Ferrari | 1m33.354s | ||
| 18 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas-Ferrari | 1m33.554s | ||
| 19 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | |||
| 20 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri-Honda |
And from the ‘some things never change’ files, Yuki T gets warnings from race control,screams at his team, and ruins the session by spreading his car across it. The pay drivers are an order of magnitude better than this guy.