After dominating Saturday’s qualifying session to secure pole position, Max Verstappen will be the favorite to win the French Grand Prix on Sunday.
At the Circuit Paul Ricard, the championship leader was untouchable, as he was the only driver to set a time under one minute and 30 seconds.
Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, was the closest to Verstappen, but he was still two and a half tenths behind him.
Circuit Since the Mercedes team returned to the Formula One calendar in 2018, Paul Ricard has been a pleasant hunting ground.
Mercedes have topped the time sheets at the end of every session around the track in southern France heading into this weekend.
With a stunning performance on Saturday, Verstappen and Red Bull have taken away that advantage.
“I knew it was going to be better than the last time we were here but this good I didn’t expect,” Verstappen said.
“This has traditionally not been an amazing track for us but to be able to put it on pole here, of course we’re super happy about that.”
Mercedes head Toto Wolf stated his team was battling for pace against the quick Red Bull despite qualifying second and third.
Hamilton will start second, Valtteri Bottas will start third, and Sergio Perez, driving the second Red Bull, will start fourth.
Mercedes needed a significant improvement on Sunday, according to Wolf, in order to compete for the race win.
“It’s been a difficult weekend because we are just lacking pace,” he said.
“It looked much worse than in the end where we ended up but we just need to gain everywhere.”
For the first time in three races, Australian Daniel Ricciardo qualified for the final stage of the race, and will start Sunday’s grand prix in tenth place.
Ricciardo will begin the race on the medium compound, which will enable him to finish on the faster tyre.
“All in all, I’m pretty happy with the performance. Everyone’s fast right now and the times are so tight, so we’ll work to keep finding pace,” he said.
“We’re still searching for those extra few tenths over a single lap, so we’ll try to make something happen [Sunday].”
The uniforms of Formula One racing drivers are currently available at the following websites for a reasonable price:
