A tale of two teams defined qualifying for the French Grand Prix and while for Mercedes the storyline was one they might have written themselves, for the once mighty McLaren, Paul Ricard is proving to be a pot-boiler they would rather was pulped.
Lewis Hamilton took pole, the first driver to claim the top spot at the race on its return after a 10-year absence. He was pushed to the limit by his Mercedes team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, but the Briton nailed an exceptional final lap to deny the Finn, securing a one-two for the team. Better still, they were well clear of Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari who was in third, in front of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
For Hamilton it is his third pole of the season and his first since Spain. “I am happy with it but I am always trying for perfection,” he said. “There was time left on the track but I am really happy with pole. It is great to be back there.”
McLaren, however, have now not won since Brazil in 2012 and have spent the weekend defending themselves against reports of dissatisfaction within the team, with no reprieve on the track.
That they are in desperate need of improvement was clear when Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne both went out in Q1, in 16th and 18th places. They were 1.4 seconds down on Verstappen’s Red Bull, powered by the same Renault engine, their worst qualifying performance of the year.
The racing director, Eric Boullier, insisted on Friday that he would not be resigning but as things stand they appear to have no answers on their lacklustre performance. “This is Formula 1. You need the right package and the right place,” said Alonso. “These last races have not been good for us but amid all this disaster we are seventh in the championship, so we must be doing something right.”
The scale of their task was illustrated by Charles Leclerc making a superb run to put his Sauber into eighth on the grid.
For Mercedes this was the comeback they wanted. With a fifth place to Sebastian Vettel’s win in Canada, Hamilton suffered a 15-point swing against him in the championship fight and now trails the German by a point. Crucially, the team were able to employ their upgraded engine here and it delivered, and Hamilton is in the best possible position to once again wrest the title lead from Vettel.
Hamilton had looked in fine form throughout the session and pulled it together during Q3 with some clinical finishing. He had gone quickest on his first hot run in Q3, a tenth up on Bottas and two-tenths clear of Vettel. However when they ran again, Bottas threw down the gauntlet with an exceptionally sharp lap on his final run. Hamilton responded, nailed the final sector and finished with a time of 1min 30.029sec, one-tenth up on the Finn and with Vettel scruffy on his final lap, unable to improve, he was left floundering four-tenths back.
Hamilton’s third pole of the season is his first at the French Grand Prix, having taken part in the race twice before when it was held at Magny-Cours in 2007 and 2008. This 75th career pole comes on the first time he has competed at Paul Ricard, which hosted the race 14 times between 1971 and 1990 and was last won by Alain Prost for Ferrari.
If they can carry their pace into the race, and their long runs had looked good, Hamilton will once again be in a position to exploit it from the front of the grid and dictate strategy, likely to be a one-stop.
Although open in his concern by the threat he expected from Ferrari, Hamilton proved to have the car he required when it mattered. Once again finding the correct temperature tyre operating window was a key ingredient and over the single lap Hamilton and Mercedes had their rubber and car working in harmony.
The final runs were interrupted after Romain Grosjean, at his home grand prix, lost the back end of his Haas going through turn three, suspending the session and he will start in 10th place. Daniel Ricciardo was in fifth with Kimi Raikkonen in sixth. Renault’s Carlos Sainz Jr was in seventh and the Haas’s of Kevin Magnussen in ninth. The Force Indias of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez were in 11th and 13th place; Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg in 12th in fornt of the Toro Roso of Pierre Gasly and the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson.
Williams, another once mighty British team, also continued to struggle, with Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll in 19th and 20th. Brendon Hartley in the Toro Rosso, qualified in 17th but will start from the back of the grid having taken a 35-place penalty for using a full new set of power unit components.
