CHARLES LECLERC ON POLE, SAINZ JR. HAPPY TO GIVE TOW

Charles Leclerc will start the French Grand Prix from the front of the grid after the Ferrari driver powered to his seventh pole position of the season, thanks to a strong tow from team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. that forced championship leader Max Verstappen to settle for second place.

With Sainz Jr. set to drop to the back of the grid due to power unit penalties, Ferrari used the Spaniard to gain a tactical advantage in the final top10 shootout of qualifying at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

Sent out ahead of Leclerc Sainz Jr. slowed late in the lap to power Leclerc through the final corners and the Monegasque driver sealed three tenths of a second ahead of Verstappen.

At the start of qualifying, Leclerc set the pace. Sergio Pérez slotted into P2 in the second Red Bull, six tenths of a second off, but Verstappen swiftly pip his team-mate to sit 0.164s behind the Ferrari driver.

Sainz Jr. went out for his first flying lap with a little under seven minutes left and the Spaniard jumped to third place, that left him a little over five hundredths ahead of Pérez.

The order at the top of the timesheet then stayed static and attention turned to the lower half of the timesheet and the battle to avoid elimination.

Ahead of the final runs the drivers in the danger zone were 16th-placed Zhou Guanyu, followed by Mick Schumacher, Nicholas Latifi, Sebastian Vettel and Magnussen who had not set a time.

When the final times were delivered, the first man out was Pierre Gasly. The home hero was ruled out of Q2 in 16th place just 0.016s off the 1:33.423 that kept Alex Albon in the session.

Behind Gasly, Lance Stroll was eliminated in P17 ahead of Zhou. It looked like Mick Schumacher had vaulted to safety when a lap of 1:33.114 put him 10th, but the German’s time was deleted for exceeding track limits in Turn 3 and he slid into the drop zone in P19 where he would eliminated ahead of Latifi.

In the first runs of Q2, Verstappen jumped to P1. Pérez slotted into second place 0.130s behind his team-mate, while Leclerc, on used soft tyres, took third, almost six tenths of a second off Verstappen’s benchmark.

Sainz Jr. was again one of the last drivers on track in the first phase of Q2 and armed with new tyres and his new power unit, the Spaniard powered to top spot, some nine tenths ahead of Verstappen.

Both Sainz Jr. and Verstappen opted to stay in the pit lane for the final runs and that allowed Leclerc to steal P2 at the end of the segment to hand Ferrari a Q2 one-two ahead of the championship leader and Pérez.

In the final runs Hamilton and Mercedes AMG’ team-mate George Russell both jumped out of danger to claim fifth and seventh places either side of the Alpine of Fernando Alonso, while Magnussen, who will also start from the back of the grid due to power unit changes, ran again to claim eighth place ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who made it into Q3 for the third time this season.

The Japanese driver progressed at the expense of Daniel Ricciardo who was eliminated by the slim margin of eight hundredths of a second. Behind the McLaren driver Alpine’s Esteban Ocon went out in P12 ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Williams’ Alex Albon.

In the first run of Q3, Sainz Jr. went out on used soft tyres ahead of Leclerc, with the Monegasque driver seeking a tow from his team-mate. And benefiting from the slipstream, the Monegasque driver took provisional pole.

Verstappen, unaided by a tow, was almost equal to the task, however, and the Dutchman slotted into second place just 0.008s behind the Ferrari. Pérez, meanwhile, took third almost eight tenths of a second ahead of Russell and Hamilton.

And with Sainz Jr. facing his grid drop, Ferrari again used the Spaniard to tow Leclerc around in the final runs. The Spanish slowed on the approach to the Signes curve and Leclerc powered through the final sector to lower the benchmark.

Verstappen, meanwhile, lost time in the first sector of his lap but a superb second sector put him a tenth ahead of Leclerc’s first run time. He couldn’t compete with the Ferrari tow late in the lap, however, and he crossed the line three tenths off pole.

Pérez, meanwhile, made a significant gain of more than three tenths of a second in his final run to claim third place, more than four tenths clear of Hamilton. Norris put in a good lap for McLaren to take fifth place ahead of Russell, Alonso and Tsunoda. Sainz Jr. qualified in ninth place, but will drop back as will Magnussen who qualified tenth.