Max Verstappen took pole with a scintillating lap around the Paul Ricard circuit, two and a half tenths ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who did everything he could to nab pole position off the Red Bull but had to settle for second.
Valtteri Bottas qualified in third ahead of Sergio Perez in fourth and Carlos Sainz in fifth, the latter looking in fairly strong form throughout the weekend. Pierre Gasly set the sixth fastest time ahead of a struggling Charles Leclerc, whilst Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo round out the top 10.
Esteban Ocon just missed out on Q3 at his home race, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who had an average session in the Aston Martin. Antonio Giovinazzi set the thirteenth fastest time in Q2 ahead of another appearance in the second part of qualifying for George Russell. Mick Schumacher got himself and Haas into Q2 for the first time ever, however he crashed at the end of Q1, and he will be hoping the gearbox is not damaged so he can take his fifteenth place on the grid.
A red flag for Mick Schumacher’s crash brought an abrupt end to Q1. Nicholas Latifi qualified in sixteenth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in seventeenth and Nikita Mazepin in eighteenth. Lance Stroll was caught out by the red flag after he had his initial laptime deleted and wasn’t able to set a second lap, so starts in nineteenth. Whilst Yuki Tsunoda crashed at the start of Q1 so qualifies at the back of the grid.
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