French GP: Charles Leclerc starts on pole for race at Paul Ricard

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start the French Grand Prix from pole position after beating title rival Max Verstappen to P1 in qualifying at Paul Ricard.

The Scuderia driver is aiming to capitalise on Ferrari’s decent form fully this weekend, and has started as he’ll surely mean to go on by taking P1 ahead of his championship rival Verstappen.

The Ferrari man had his team-mate to thank, in part, for earning pole as he saw Carlos Sainz give him a tow on his final flying lap, with the Spaniard more than happy to oblige with his own race already pretty compromised after Ferrari decided to install a host of new parts into his power unit following the fire in Austria – it means he’ll start from the rear of the field tomorrow.

Indeed, that also means that Leclerc is surrounded by Red Bulls, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in P2 and P3 and looking to pounce, so we could be in for quite the charge down to the first corner on Sunday afternoon.

Behind them, Lewis Hamilton will line up in the Mercedes in P4 but ultimately a race win challenge from either him or George Russell looks unlikely, with Lewis saying that they are still lacking the pace they need to reel in the two teams out in front.

Speaking of Russell, he’ll start in P6 behind the McLaren of Lando Norris, with the Bristolian putting in another fine performance to qualify P5 and help continue the challenge in the fight for fourth in the Constructors’.

His aim in terms of that, then, will be to keep Fernando Alonso behind him with the Spaniard in the Alpine directly sat behind on the grid, having qualified seventh.

Yuki Tsunoda will start eighth after producing a fine qualifying performance in the upgraded AlphaTauri, whilst Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon have