Verstappen grabs pole for Red Bull at Paul Ricard, Perez P4; Hamilton P2 & Bottas P3 for Mercedes
The 2021 F1 title tilt continued to distill down to the two top drivers on the two top teams, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rebounded from a DNF at the last race in Azerbaijan to grab pole at the psychedelic Paul Ricard circuit during Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s French Gran Prix. The flying Dutchman pipped his main title rival, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, by around three-tenths on his final flying lap in Q3. Hamilton was also seeking redemption after blowing a sure podium and perhaps victory at Baku two weeks ago when he left a break bias control on by mistake on the final restart and slid off the track and out of the points. The English seven-time champ posted a solid time good enough for P2 and a starting spot alongside Verstappen at the front of the grid, as the two resumed their back and forth battle for supremacy that seems certain to last all year long. While Verstappen and Red Bull had the one lap pace today it’s an open question as to whether they can match Hamilton’s race pace when the lights go out on Sunday.
Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com
Hamilton’s Silver Arrows teammate Valtteri Bottas posted a very good P3 qualifying result and appeared positively giddy to have left the street circuits of Monaco and Baku behind. That put the embattled Finn one slot ahead of Verstappen’s stablemate, Sergio Perez, who will start P4 two weeks after inheriting the victory in Azerbaijan when Verstappen crashed out late in the race with tire failure. With the front four a full on Red Bull-Mercedes mix and match, look for some intense dicing on the opening lap and perhaps one or more of the top contenders getting pushed wide on the acres of multi-colored abrasive runoff areas on this most unique and frankly strange circuit in the south of France.
Behind the elite quartet, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz bested his teammate Charles Leclerc P5 to P7. The rare subpar result by the Monegasque also ended Leclerc’s two-race pole-setting streak. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly managed to nail his last opportunity in Q3 to set the sixth fastest lap after having his previous best effort deleted for exceeding track limits. The McLarens of Lando Norris and Daily Ricciardo qualified P8 and P10 respectively, while the veteran Fernando Alonso used all of his copious experience to over-perform and drag his Alpine up to a decent P9 starting spot.
Top 10 qualifiers for the French GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:31.001 | 1:31.080 | 1:29.990 | |
| 2 | 1:31.237 | 1:30.788 | 1:30.248 | |
| 3 | 1:31.669 | 1:30.735 | 1:30.376 | |
| 4 | 1:31.560 | 1:30.971 | 1:30.445 | |
| 5 | 1:32.079 | 1:31.146 | 1:30.840 | |
| 6 | 1:31.898 | 1:31.353 | 1:30.868 | |
| 7 | 1:32.209 | 1:31.567 | 1:30.987 | |
| 8 | 1:31.733 | 1:31.542 | 1:31.252 | |
| 9 | 1:32.158 | 1:31.549 | 1:31.340 | |
| 10 | 1:32.181 | 1:31.615 | 1:31.382 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live at 9AM Eastern on ESPN here in the States. A week after both men scored zero points, look for a ding dong battle between Verstappen and Hamilton in this latest high speed test of their respective title aspirations. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!