Leclerc makes most of Sainz tow to claim French GP pole

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc made use of a slipstream from his team-mate Carlos Sainz to take pole position for F1’s French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard.

Sainz, who was always destined to start from the back of the grid due to a spate of engine penalties, provided a tow to Leclerc on both of the Monegasque’s flying laps in Q3, punching a hole through the air coming out of the Mistral chicane and then letting Leclerc through out of Signes.

The first time around, it enabled Leclerc to lap 0.008s quicker than Max Verstappen, but a much more assertive second lap – a 1m30.872s – put him three tenths clear of the Dutchman.

“Without Carlos it would’ve been much more close, huge thanks to Carlos,” Leclerc acknowledged afterwards.

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez was never quite in the mix for pole but managed to score a comfortable third, ahead of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.

The other Mercedes of George Russell was actually marginally quicker on the first run, but was outpaced by nearly four tenths by Hamilton the second time by – and slipped down to sixth, also behind the McLaren of Lando Norris.

Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda completed the top eight as the last two drivers to set a time in Q3.

Daniel Ricciardo trailed McLaren team-mate Norris by just a tenth and a half, but this was still the difference between making Q3 and not – with the Aussie settling for 11th, which turns into ninth on the grid.

Local driver Esteban Ocon was four tenths off Alonso in Q2 and will start 10th, followed by Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Williams’s Alexander Albon.

Pierre Gasly suffered an ignominious Q1 exit on home soil in the upgraded AlphaTauri, reporting a problem on the rear left late on.

He did at least get what will be 14th place on the grid over Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who had set an identical laptime but did so later – suffering a seventh consecutive Q1 exit.

A costly slide prevented Alfa Romeo rookie Guanyu Zhou from improving late on and consigned him to 16th, ahead of Mick Schumacher (Haas) – who was shocked to have a Q2-worthy lap deleted for seemingly cutting the inside of Turn 3 – and Nicholas Latifi (Williams).

It wasn’t just Sainz but also Haas driver Kevin Magnussen who was resigned to a back-of-the-grid start due to engine penalties, and Magnussen likewise made it to Q3, where he was an unsurprising no-show.

Qualifying Results