Formula One: French Grand Prix – live!

Key events

Giles Richards spoke to a Ferrari mainstay of the past in Jean Alesi.

“Lewis is unique,” he says. “When Michael [Schumacher] took seven championships everybody said: ‘That’s over for the next 40 years.’ Then Lewis arrived. He is really impressive. When you are spoiled in terms of results like he was, because a good race is P1, a shit race is P2, that was his life. But now he is driving a car that is jumping on the straight like a kangaroo and for him to stay motivated to talk to the engineers, to improve the car, that is … Wow. What a champion.”

Despite only taking one win – a record that does not reflect his talent, especially in the wet – Alesi recalls his career with fondness and still adores the sport. The Scuderia were far from their best during his time with them. The 1991 car was unreliable; Alesi retired nine times that season and his teammate Prost, who had fallen out with Ferrari, was fired after he described the car as a “truck”.

Lewis Hamilton was not happy with Mercedes’ qualifying performance at Paul Ricard, where it was felt his team might at last catch up with Red Bull and Ferrari.

We were hoping to be a lot closer than we are. I was thinking we might be 0.2secs or something like that. But we’re a second off and I don’t have an answer for that.

For whatever reason, we seem to be a lot further off this weekend, but the whole pack is. The two top teams are in their own league, really.

In the last lap, the first sector is as quick. Then we lose a lot down the straights. At least half a second. And then through that high-speed section again, they have less drag and more downforce in the corners. The last sector was 0.6-0.7secs. it’s just crazy. For some reason they are able to go much quicker through the high-speed corners.

I came here hoping we’d be within 0.3secs and then we could close that a couple of tenths at the next race and be in the fight at Budapest. But if it’s anything like this, it is going to be a while (before we can win). But it’s not impossible.

Giles Richards watched a pole position collected in pragmatic fashion.

He put in a fine lap for Ferrari but was aided by a tow from his teammate, Carlos Sainz, that helped him clinch pole, beating the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez into second and third. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were fourth and sixth – decent enough given their season but far from the improvement Mercedes had hoped for. An end to their winless run seems as far off as ever.

Sainz finished in ninth but, with the team knowing he would start from the back row of the grid after taking new power unit components, they opted to use him tactically to Leclerc’s advantage.

Preamble

For there to be a title race, we probably need a Charles Leclerc win here, to repeat his win in the Austrian GP last time out. Despite that, Max Verstappen still has a 38-point advantage over the Monegasque driver in second place and 57 points on Sergio Pérez, and is sat second on the grid today at Paul Ricard. Leclerc and Verstappen, with due deference to George Russell should Mercedes sort themselves out, looks like the rivalry of the future. The issue all season has been Ferrari may well be quicker over a single lap but do not have the reliability and pit-lane nous of Red Bull, who themselves have not been completely watertight. Still, Leclerc driving like a demon conjures memories of Ferrari at their best. Verstappen has already had it harder than last year here, when he was on pole, won the race and set the fastest lap. Now, can Leclerc make his title defence harder?

The lights go out at 2pm, join me.

Starting grid positions

  • 1 Charles Leclerc – Ferrari
  • 2 Max Verstappen – Red Bull
  • 3 Sergio Perez – Red Bull
  • 4 Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes
  • 5 Lando Norris – McLaren
  • 6 George Russell – Mercedes
  • 7 Fernando Alonso – Alpine
  • 8 Yuki Tsunoda – AlphaTauri
  • 9 Daniel Ricciardo – McLaren
  • 10 Esteban Ocon – Alpine
  • 11 Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo
  • 12 Sebastian Vettel – Aston Martin
  • 13 Alex Albon – Williams
  • 14 Pierre Gasly – AlphaTauri
  • 15 Lance Stroll – Aston Martin
  • 16 Guanyu Zhou – Alfa Romeo
  • 17 Mick Schumacher – Haas
  • 18 Nicholas Latifi – Williams
  • 19 Carlos Sainz – Ferriari
  • 20 Kevin Magnussen – Haas

Driver championship standings

  • 1. Max Verstappen – 208 points
  • 2. Charles Leclerc – 170 points
  • 3. Sergio Perez – 151 points
  • 4. Carlos Sainz – 133 points
  • 5. George Russell – 128 points
  • 6. Lewis Hamilton – 109 points
  • 7. Lando Norris – 64 points
  • 8. Esteban Ocon – 52 points
  • 9. Valtteri Bottas – 46 points
  • 10. Fernando Alonso – 29 points
  • 11. Kevin Magnussen – 22 points
  • 12. Daniel Ricciardo -17 points
  • 13. Pierre Gasly – 16 points
  • 14. Sebastian Vettel -15 points
  • 15. Mick Schumacher – 12 points
  • 16. Yuki Tsunoda – 11 points
  • 17. Guanyu Zhou – 5 points
  • 18. Alex Albon – 3 points
  • 19. Lance Stroll – 3 points
source: theguardian.com