F1: Verstappen beats Hamilton to pole in France, hopes to extend championship lead

The Paul Ricard circuit in France has been known to favour Mercedes cars in the past but Red Bull racing driver Max Verstappen ripped through the competition to snap the top spot in the qualifying session on Saturday. He lines up beside championship rival Lewis Hamilton, who is playing catch-up after both drivers failed to score any points in Baku.

Mercedes and in fact, Lewis Hamilton himself, has taken pole at the French Grand Prix since 2018. The winds have changed this season, and Verstappen continues to prove that he is finally ready to be the title contender that Christian Horner always believed him to be.

The Mercedes cars lacked pace in the last couple of races, but they were expected to come back with a vengeance in France. However, the flying Dutchman had other ideas, and he made this clear after topping qualifying. He was up by four tenths of a second in the first run, but Red Bull knew they needed another run to make sure they keep the spot. Hamilton looked poised to steal pole after a good first sector, but Verstappen put the pedal to the metal in the final two sectors to go even faster in his second run.

Hamilton's Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, took third place to bump down the second Red Bull of Checo Perez. Horner will be pleased to at least have Baku winner Perez up there to make sure that the Mercedes drivers have not one, but two Red Bulls to worry about.

The 2-3 starting position is promising for Mercedes, who struggled in qualifying both in Monaco and Azerbaijan. However, race pace is an entirely different thing, and everyone at Red Bull is aware that the fight is far from over.

Meanwhile, the best Ferrari of the session came in via Carlos Sainz in 5th place. The Scuderia dropped down the order after two consecutive poles by Charles Leclerc, who only made it to 7th this time around. Pierre Gasly gave the French fans a massive thrill as he took an impressive sixth place in his AlphaTauri.

There were threats of another red flag wreaking havoc in qualifying after both Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Mick Schumacher (Haas) found the barriers. However, Q3 went relatively smoothly this time, with all 10 drivers able to make clean runs until the clock ran out.

Verstappen currently leads Hamilton by four points, and he will be looking forward to widening that gap in the drivers' championship on Sunday.