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Formula 1 French GP
Grand Prix qualifying results: Verstappen on pole for French GP
Max Verstappen took pole position for the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard for Red Bull Racing on Saturday, the seventh round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship season.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Jun 19, 2021, 9:12 PM
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Verstappen will start ahead of the Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.
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French Grand Prix qualifying results: Verstappen on pole from Hamilton
Cla Driver Chassis Time Gap 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1'29.990 2
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1'30.248 0.258 3
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1'30.376 0.386 4
Sergio Perez Red Bull 1'30.445 0.455 5
Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1'30.840 0.850 6
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1'30.868 0.878 7
Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1'30.987 0.997 8
Lando Norris McLaren 1'31.252 1.262 9
Fernando Alonso Alpine 1'31.340 1.350 10
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1'31.382 1.392 11
Esteban Ocon Alpine 1'31.736 1.746 12
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1'31.767 1.777 13
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1'31.813 1.823 14
George Russell Williams 1'32.065 2.075 15
Mick Schumacher Haas 16
Nicholas Latifi Williams 1'33.062 3.072 17
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 1'33.354 3.364 18
Nikita Mazepin Haas 1'33.554 3.564 19
Lance Stroll Aston Martin 2'12.584 42.594 20
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri View full results
What happened in Q1?
Yuki Tsunoda caused an early red flag when he spun his AlphaTauri at Turn 1 and glanced the tyrewall with his rear wing. Tsunoda was unable to engage first gear, after the rear axle of the car shook violently as he slid backwards, and was out of the session just moments after it had begun.
When it resumed, Bottas set the initial pace at 1m31.669s, with Hamilton just 0.023s slower. Then Verstappen reset the bar at 1m31.001s – 0.668s faster than the Merc duo – with Sergio Perez backing him up in second, 0.559s off his teammate’s pace.
Hamilton stayed out for a second push lap, producing 1m31.237s to jump up to second, but was still 0.236s shy of Verstappen.
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A second red flag in the closing minute of the session, for Mick Schumacher crashing his Haas, meant that falling at the first hurdle were Williams’ Nicholas Latifi (by just 0.002s), Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and the second Haas of Nikita Mazepin, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (who lost one laptime due to exceeding track limits and another due to hitting traffic), plus Tsunoda.
Schumacher made it through to Q2 for the first time, in 14th position, but wouldn’t be taking part due to a damaging both left-side corners of his car against the Armco.
French Grand Prix Q1 results: Verstappen fastest from Hamilton
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 4 1'31.001 2
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 6 1'31.237 0.236 0.236 3
Sergio Perez Red Bull 4 1'31.560 0.559 0.323 4
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 4 1'31.669 0.668 0.109 5
Lando Norris McLaren 6 1'31.733 0.732 0.064 6
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 8 1'31.898 0.897 0.165 7
Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 7 1'32.079 1.078 0.181 8
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 6 1'32.132 1.131 0.053 9
Esteban Ocon Alpine 4 1'32.139 1.138 0.007 10
Fernando Alonso Alpine 5 1'32.158 1.157 0.019 11
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 7 1'32.181 1.180 0.023 12
Charles Leclerc Ferrari 8 1'32.209 1.208 0.028 13
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 7 1'32.722 1.721 0.513 14
Mick Schumacher Haas 7 1'32.942 1.941 0.220 15
George Russell Williams 7 1'33.060 2.059 0.118 16
Nicholas Latifi Williams 7 1'33.062 2.061 0.002 17
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 7 1'33.354 2.353 0.292 18
Nikita Mazepin Haas 7 1'33.554 2.553 0.200 19
Lance Stroll Aston Martin 7 2'12.584 41.583 39.030 20
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 2 View full results
What happened in Q2?
In Q2 the vast majority of the field went out on medium tyres, to avoid starting on the softs if they qualified for the top-10 shootout.
Perez set the benchmark at 1m30.971s, a tenth faster than Verstappen. Hamilton then jumped to the top on his second push lap, producing 1m30.959s – 0.012s faster than Perez.
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Bottas went fastest on his second medium-tyred run, his 1m30.735s being 0.053s faster than Hamilton’s 1m30.788s.
Knocked out at this point were Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo), George Russell (Williams) and Schumacher.
French Grand Prix Q2 results: Bottas fastest from Hamilton
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 10 1'30.735 2
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 14 1'30.788 0.053 0.053 3
Sergio Perez Red Bull 10 1'30.971 0.236 0.183 4
Max Verstappen Red Bull 10 1'31.080 0.345 0.109 5
Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 13 1'31.146 0.411 0.066 6
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 16 1'31.353 0.618 0.207 7
Lando Norris McLaren 12 1'31.542 0.807 0.189 8
Fernando Alonso Alpine 11 1'31.549 0.814 0.007 9
Charles Leclerc Ferrari 14 1'31.567 0.832 0.018 10
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 15 1'31.615 0.880 0.048 11
Esteban Ocon Alpine 10 1'31.736 1.001 0.121 12
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 12 1'31.767 1.032 0.031 13
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 13 1'31.813 1.078 0.046 14
George Russell Williams 13 1'32.065 1.330 0.252 15
Mick Schumacher Haas 7 View full results
What happened in Q3?
In the top-10 shootout, Verstappen set the pace after the first run with a time of 1m30.325s, 0.386s ahead of Hamilton, followed by Perez and Bottas. Carlos Sainz was best of the rest for Ferrari.
On the second runs, Verstappen lowered the P1 time to 1m29.990s. Hamilton’s best effort was 1m30.248s, 0.258s down. Bottas grabbed third from Perez, with Sainz again leading the rest.
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Pierre Gasly lost his first laptime for exceeding track limits at Turn 6, but jumped back to sixth for AlphaTauri, ahead of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Lando Norris (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren).
French Grand Prix Q3 results: Verstappen takes pole
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 16 1'29.990 2
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 20 1'30.248 0.258 0.258 3
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 16 1'30.376 0.386 0.128 4
Sergio Perez Red Bull 16 1'30.445 0.455 0.069 5
Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 19 1'30.840 0.850 0.395 6
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 22 1'30.868 0.878 0.028 7
Charles Leclerc Ferrari 20 1'30.987 0.997 0.119 8
Lando Norris McLaren 18 1'31.252 1.262 0.265 9
Fernando Alonso Alpine 17 1'31.340 1.350 0.088 10
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 21 1'31.382 1.392 0.042 View full results
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