Max Verstappen claimed a superb pole position to beat championship rival Lewis Hamilton to the head of the grid for Sunday’s French GP.
The F1 championship leader, who holds a slender four-point advantage over his British rival, topped qualifying for the first time since March’s season-opener in Bahrain amid a strong weekend so far around a Paul Ricard circuit at which Mercedes had dominated since it returned to the sport three years ago.
Despite appearing off the pace through practice, Hamilton was a strong threat in the pole shootout and Verstappen required an improved final lap of 1:29.990 to see off the seven-time world champion by a margin of 0.258 seconds.
“That was a good lap. Still over two tenths off?” said Hamilton to his race engineer over the radio after beating Verstappen’s original Q3 time with his final attempt but still falling comfortably short of pole.
Valtteri Bottas had been the faster Mercedes driver through practice but slipped behind Hamilton in qualifying, although still took third from the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez with his last lap.
But Red Bull certainly appear the team to beat in the south of France.
“If we can beat them here, really we can beat them anywhere,” said Red Bull boss Christian Horner to Sky F1. “So there’s a lot at stake.”
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