Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen swept to his second pole position of the season during qualifying for the French Grand Prix.
Verstappen, having dominated the final practice session at Circuit Paul Ricard, opened a commanding advantage during Q3 on Saturday afternoon.
All of the front-runners improved during their second Q3 push laps but Verstappen was the only driver to breach the 1:30s barrier.
Verstappen’s effort of 1:29.990s left him 0.258s clear of title rival Lewis Hamilton, who claimed pole position upon Formula 1’s previous two visits to modern-spec Paul Ricard in 2018 and 2019.
It marked Verstappen’s first pole position since the opening round of 2021 in Bahrain.
Valtteri Bottas secured third spot for Mercedes, ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
The leading drivers will also start on the Medium tyres, rather than the Softs, after using the yellow-banded compound to progress through Q2.
Sainz spearheads midfield battle
Charles Leclerc secured back-to-back pole positions in Monaco and Azerbaijan but Ferrari was never in the mix for top spot in France.
Instead, it was not Leclerc, but team-mate Carlos Sainz who fronted that battle, finishing the session in fifth position.
Leclerc was pushed down to seventh by the conclusion of the session as the Ferrari drivers were split by lead home representative Pierre Gasly, who again excelled for AlphaTauri.
McLaren’s Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo were eighth and 10th respectively, either side of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso.
Ocon dumped out in Q2
Esteban Ocon and Alpine committed to each other through 2024 earlier this week after agreeing a lengthy three-year deal.
But Saturday’s qualifying result was slightly underwhelming for Ocon after being a top 10 contender through much of practice.
Ocon was left down in 11th, ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, while Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi took 13th.
George Russell finished a couple of tenths further back in 14th as he continued his fine Saturday form for Williams.
Schumacher makes Q2 – but by crashing
Mick Schumacher secured Haas’ first Q2 spot of the season – but it came about in unfortunate circumstances.
Schumacher held a provisional 14th in the first knockout session when he crashed out through Turn 6 as he sought to improve his time.
The crash brought out the red flags and with only 20 seconds left on the clock Q1 did not restart.
Both Williams drivers were on laps that would have demoted Schumacher out of the top 15 but they had to abandon those efforts.
Russell snuck through, classifying 15th, but Nicholas Latifi was left on the wrong side of the cut-off.
Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen was left a subdued 17th, ahead of Haas rookie Nikita Mazepin, while Lance Stroll had a nightmarish session.
The Aston Martin driver had his first Q1 push lap deleted for exceeding track limits through Turn 6 and then abandoned his next hot lap.
Stroll went again but was then unable to complete a timed lap owing to Schumacher’s accident.
Schumacher, having crashed out of Q1, did not run in Q2.
Tsunoda exits early
AlphaTauri rookie Yuki Tsunoda crashed out of qualifying for a third time in seven grands prix.
Tsunoda spun through the entry to Turn 2 and suffered a minor rear-first entry into the barriers, with the rear of the AlphaTauri AT02 bizarrely oscillating prior to the impact.
Tsunoda tried to re-join the action but was stuck in neutral and eventually had to abandon his efforts.
It means Tsunoda will start Sunday’s race from the rear of the 20-car field.
Sunday’s 53-lap French Grand Prix is scheduled for 15:00 local time
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