Red Bull again got the jump on defending world champions Mercedes as Max Verstappen took a commanding pole position at Paul Ricard which returns after a hiatus of a year. All was not lost for the silver arrows, as Verstappen was closely followed by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes who in the final moments of Q3 pipped his teammate Valtteri Bottas who ended up P3. Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez who won the last race at Baku took a discrete P4.
All weekend, the Mercedes car was looking much more competitive than it had been in Monaco and Baku, but it couldn't match Verstappen's lap time, despite renewed confidence from Bottas and some last-minute heroics by world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Following the Red Bull and Mercedes pair was Carlos Sainz Jr in the Ferrari which looked surprisingly competitive on a track that was supposed to favour the McLaren Mercedes more. Sainz was the lead Ferrari in P5, as he out-qualified his supremely talented teammate Charles Leclerc who just managed P7. Splitting the two was home crowd favourite Pierre Gasly in the competitive AlphaTauri in P6.
Leclerc was out-qualified by his teammate and came P7
P8 went to Lando Norris in the McLaren which couldn't come to terms with the conditions at Paul Ricard. That being said he still managed to again out-qualify his teammate Daniel Ricciardo who just managed P10 and bailed out of his last lap in Q3.
Fernando Alonso was the lead Alpine in the P9 having rediscovered his form after his Baku exploits. His teammate Esteban Ocon who was also in his home race just managed P11 and didn't make it beyond Q2.
Aston Martin largely struggled and Vettel just managed P12, though this was far better than his teammate Lance Stroll whose lap during Q1 was ruined by the red flag trigged by Mick Schumacher's crash. Stroll will start the race P19, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda who also crashed his AlphaTauri bringing about a red flag in Q1.
Antonio Giovinazzi came P13 in the Alfa Romeo ahead of Kimi Raikkonen who came P17. George Russell again impressed in the Williams coming P14, though the star was Mick Schumacher who hauled his Haas to Q2 with P15. He didn't take part in Q2 because he crashed in Q1 bringing in the red flag.
Nicholas Latifi in the second Williams just missed Q2 with P16. Nikita Mazepin was P18 in the second Haas.
The Mercedes duo fared better, but still couldn't nap pole
Qualifying timesheet:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:29.990
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.258s
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +0.386s
4 Sergio Perez Red Bull +0.455s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.850s
6 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +0.878s
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.997s
8 Lando Norris McLaren +1.262s
9 Fernando Alonso Alpine +1.350s
10 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +1.392s
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:31.736
12 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 0.031s
13 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing 0.077s
14 George Russell Williams 0.329s
15 Mick Schumacher Haas NO TIME SET in Q2
16 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:33.062
17 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing +0.292
18 Nikita Mazepin Haas +0.492
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin NO TIME SET
20 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri NO TIME SET
