Mercedes continued their dominance in F1 French GP with pole for Lewis Hamilton ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Q1:
The first part of F1 French GP qualifying at Circuit Paul Ricard saw Mercedes duo lead the way with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the Top 3 with Sebastian Vettel only 10th and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen 14th.
It was close towards the end as Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat (1m31.564s) was the first to miss out in Q2 which wouldn’t bother the Russian as he has a penalty on his plate. Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m31.626s) was only 17th after a mistake at the chicane.
The Frenchman was put under investigation along with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, after the latter two went off and re-joined in front of Grosjean. Unlike his teammate, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was only 18th.
He timed a 1m31.726s which was only 1.063s quicker than Williams’ George Russell (1m32.789s), who also has a penalty for an engine change as Robert Kubica (1m33.205s) rounded out the 20 runners.
Q2:
The strategy game was on display by plenty of drivers with both Mercedes drivers opting for medium along with two Ferrari drivers. Interestingly, Red Bull’s Verstappen opted for the same compound and also McLaren’s Carlos Sainz to set their quickest time.
Initially, both Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris went for the soft tyre but Norris changed to the medium along with the two Renault drivers. Red Bull, meanwhile, kept Gasly on the soft with the Frenchman just making it into Q3 in 10th with a better lap.
At the front, the Mercedes headed the way with Bottas but Vettel improved late in the session to be second with Hamilton in third. Among the drivers missing, Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon (1m30.461s) was 11th ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Raikkonen (1m30.533s).
In a big disappointment, Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m30.544s) was only 13th on the medium compound with Racing Point’s Sergio Perez (1m30.738s) ending up 14th and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m31.440s) 15th.
Q3:
It was traffic strategy again at the start of the final part of qualifying as Hamilton stamped his authority with a 1m28.444s to take provisional F1 French GP pole ahead of Bottas and Leclerc as Vettel bailed out of his first lap due to an upshift issue.
On their second run, Hamilton improved to a 1m28.319s to score his third pole of 2019 F1 season in French GP as Bottas failed to improve to end up second after a mistake on his lap, with Leclerc (1m28.965s) finishing third from Verstappen (1m29.409s).
McLaren shone locking out the third row with Norris (1m29.418s) in fifth ahead of Sainz (1m29.522s), while Vettel’s (1m29.799s) only lap was best enough for seventh with Ricciardo (1m29.918s) eighth, Gasly (1m30.184s) ninth and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi (1m33.420s) 10th.