F1, Gp France: amazing Charles Leclerc, he is on pole ahead of Max Verstappen
Extraordinary Monegasque’s time at the tail end of Q3
With an extraordinary 1:30.872, Charles Leclerc took pole position for the French Grand Prix at the Paul Ricard circuit in Le Castellet at the wheel of his Ferrari. The fastest lap, the only one among the Q3 drivers under 1:31, came right on the checkered flag: nothing to do for Max Verstappen, second at 304 thousandths, and the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who will start from the second row along with Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.
They are followed by McLaren’s Lando Norris, Mercedes’ George Russell, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. Also entered in Q3 were Carlos Sainz (dominant until the end of Q2) in the other Ferrari and Kevin Magnussen of Haas, who, however, preferred to avoid risks by having to start on the last row due to their respective penalties (due to power unit change).
Gp France, the starting grid:
1 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
2 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
3 Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
4 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
5 Lando Norris (McLaren)
6 George Russell (Mercedes)
7 Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
8 Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
9 Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
10 Esteban Ocon (Alpine )
11 Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo Racing)
12 Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
13 Alex Albon (Williams)
14 Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
15 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
16 Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo Racing)
17 Mick Schumacher (Haas)
18 Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
19 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) (penalized)
20 Kevin Magnussen (Haas) (penalized)
