This weekend marks the return of Circuit Paul Ricard to the F1 calendar. Qualifying for tomorrow’s returning French Grand Prix went off without a hitch. Moreover, the returning race is the beginning of F1’s first-ever triple header.
Lewis Hamilton sits on pole for tomorrow’s race, securing his 75th career effort with a lap time of 1:30.029. The Briton kicked things off early with a time 1:30.222 on his first run, one-tenth ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas. Soon afterwards, an incident put the session on ice almost as quickly as it had begun.
Haas driver Romain Grosjean got a little too friendly with the curbing on Turn 3, and crashed at Turn 4. The good news, if there is any for the troubled French driver, is he starts from 10th tomorrow. At the restart, Bottas was quick to react, setting a 1:30.147 for good measure. The time was good enough to claim the position for the time being.
As the session came to an end, Hamilton put a stamp on things with the pole-setting lap time. Bottas, in the second Mercedes, tucks behind in second for the front row lockout. One interesting thing to note is this is Mercedes’ 52nd lockout, only 10 shy of the current record. Ironic then that McLaren and Williams hold the record as neither team made it into the top 10.
While Bottas has sat on the podium in three of the last four races, and with three race wins, he has yet to attain pole in 2018. Sebastian Vettel starts from third for Ferrari, 0.371s off the pace. Despite running wide on his final attempt, his record of qualifying into the top three every race this year continues.
Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo kick off tomorrow’s race in fourth and fifth for Red Bull. Both were able to get ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari, who was having trouble of his own. Ricciardo doesn’t expect tomorrow’s race to be any easier, exclaiming Mercedes “will be out of reach” if things go smoothly tomorrow.
This is where things could get interesting. Both Mercedes and Red Bull start tomorrow on the supersofts, using the tires to set their Q2 times. In contrast, the Ferraris starts on the ultrasofts, giving them the advantage off the line. Should things play into their hands, both Vettel and Raikkonen may get a jump on the field tomorrow.
Carlos Sainz starts from seventh for Renault more than a second off of Raikkonen’s pace. He fared better than teammate Nico Hulkenberg who will start from 12th.
Charles Leclerc put on his most impressive act to date for Sauber. Not only did the Monégasque driver make it into Q3 — the first of his career — he starts from eighth. Leclerc will be one to watch tomorrow, and if the rumors are true, Ferrari will have eyes on him as well.
Kevin Magnussen starts from ninth for Haas, 0.293s off Leclerc’s pace. Magnussen complained of having his efforts stifled by Raikkonen in Q3. Should the drivers avert disaster in tomorrow’s race, we could be looking at a points-paying finish for the team.
McLaren and Williams both continue in their woes, the former producing its worst qualifying effort of the year. Neither car managed to advance beyond Q1 for the first time since Baku last year. Even worse, The latter failed to advance beyond Q1 for the fifth time in 2018, a record unto itself.
Tomorrow’s race may be an interesting one as the start can go any one of several ways. Who knows, we may be in for an upset victory of some kind.
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