Max Verstappen storms to take pole position at Paul Ricard

Max Verstappen snatched pole position in today’s qualifying session at Paul Ricard. 

Red Bull and Max Verstappen halted Mercedes’ dominant qualifying form at Paul Ricard as Max Verstappen took his second pole position of the season.

The Red Bull driver held provisional pole going into the final runs; he then underlined his speed by going faster on his last flying lap. The Dutchman’s 1m29.990s proved to be too good for the rest.

Lewis Hamilton and a resurgent Valtteri Bottas will start behind Verstappen. Hamilton seemed stuck on the backfoot until he pulled out a solid lap to haul himself onto the front row.

The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez rounds out the top two rows with his fourth position.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz claimed fifth place to lead the crowded midfield battle. Sainz, Gasly and Leclerc are all separated by one-and-a-half tenths.

Both McLaren’s will start in the top ten, and Fernando Alonso managed to hustle his Alpine into ninth place for the French team’s home race.

Alonso’s teammate Esteban Ocon just missed out in Q2; he will go from 11th on the grid. Ocon heads Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, the ever-improving Antonio Giovinazzi and Williams’ George Russell.

Mick Schumacher took no part in Q2 due to his session ending crash on the exit of turn six in Q1.

That crash caused a red flag which eliminated Lance Stroll. The Canadian got his first lap deleted due to a track limits violation, and the Schumacher crash ended his session.

The session started with a red flag courtesy of Yuki Tsunoda’s incident at turn two. The young Japanese driver’s wildly inconsistent season continues, and he will go from last for the race.

Final Classification