Leclerc grabs pole for French Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc will start the French Grand Prix from pole after beating Max Verstappen to top spot at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Leclerc had the benefit of teammate Carlos Sainz providing a slipstream down the back straight to minimize Ferrari’s weekend-long top-speed disadvantage, allowing the Monegasque’s strong first and final sectors to make the difference.

Sainz will start from the back of the grid with a penalty for using too many power unit parts; the Spaniard progressed through qualifying only to benefit his teammate.

“It’s a great lap,” he said. “I’ve struggled all weekend to put a lap together and I managed to put it [together].

“I also had the help of Carlos, and that was amazing teamwork. Without Carlos it would’ve been much more close.

“Thanks to Carlos, and hopefully he can join us in the fight tomorrow.”

Verstappen challenged Leclerc on his first run to shadow his title rival by just 0.008s, but he had no answer for Ferrari’s pace on the second runs. The Dutchman failed to improve in the first two sectors before posting a fractionally improved final split to secure a distant second, 0.304s off the pace.

“I think we were lacking a bit in qualifying, just general grip” he said. “It was a bit more tricky than I think I would’ve hoped.

“Overall we still have a decent race car. We are quick on the straights. Hopefully we can use that tomorrow.”

Sergio Perez was 0.159s slower than Verstappen to qualify third, which the Mexican described as a good turnaround from being off the pace throughout practice.

“It’s been a good recovery,” he said. “I’ve been nowhere the whole weekend, to be honest. I’ve been struggling a lot.

“It’s probably been my worst weekend up to qualifying.”

Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth, but Mercedes’ promised pace never materialized, and he was 0.893s off pole.

George Russell fared worse, qualifying another 0.366s back in sixth, a gap big enough for McLaren’s Lando Norris to slot into to qualify fifth.

Fernando Alonso was the best-placed Alpine in seventh, beating AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who qualified eighth.

Both Sainz and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen qualified for the top-10 shootout but carried back-of-grid penalties for exceeding their season allocation of power unit parts. Sainz will start 19th ahead of Magnussen in 20th.

Daniel Ricciardo was pipped by less than 0.1s for a slot in Q3 and was knocked out 11th.

Home favorite Esteban Ocon was closely matched with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, edging him for 12th by just 0.004s.

Sebastian Vettel was eliminated 14th for Aston Martin ahead of Alex Albon’s Williams.

Pierre Gasly was 16th, falling at the first hurdle. He set an identical time to Lance Stroll, but the Canadian will start behind him for having set the lap second.

Zhou Guanyu threw away his final flying lap with a big snap of oversteer through Turn 6, eliminating him in 18th.

Mick Schumacher thought he’d made it through to Q2, but his final lap was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 3, dropping him back down to 19th ahead of Williams driver Nicholas Latifi, who completed the order.