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| Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in action during qualifying |
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton roared back to form on Saturday to put his Mercedes on pole position for the first French Grand Prix in a decade.
Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas, who had gone top moments earlier, had to settle for second โ just 0.118 of a second slower โ as the Silver Arrows locked out the front row in style.
Ferrariโs championship leader Sebastian Vettel, a point ahead of the Briton after seven of 21 races, qualified in third place.
Sundayโs race will be the first French Grand Prix since Magny-Cours in 2008 and the first held at the southern Le Castellet circuit since 1990.
โIt feels great to be back in France. Itโs such a beautiful place. I got a great response from the crowd and Iโm delighted to be here for the first time,โ said Hamilton, who described his final session as โso-soโ.
The pole, in a time of one minute 30.029 seconds, was his third of the year and pushed his Formula One record to 75.
The battle of Formula Oneโs four-times champions has ebbed and flowed, with Vettel taking back the lead in Canada after Hamilton had to make do with an engine reaching the end of its life while rival teams had upgrades.
He finished fifth in Montreal, a favourite track, in his worst showing of the season so far.
Mercedes brought an upgraded power unit to Le Castellet and Hamilton, who has yet to win in France, has been consistently quick.
โThe headline has been the new power unit, which has been a massive effort from all the team in Brixworthโฆand that work is starting to pay off,โ said team boss Toto Wolff.
LECLERC IMPRESSES
โI did push everything in the last attempt but pushed too much,โ said Vettel. โBut P3 Iโm happy with because the car should be good in the race.โ
Red Bullโs Max Verstappen qualified fourth with Australian team mate Daniel Ricciardo fifth and Ferrariโs Kimi Raikkonen sixth.
โI donโt think we maximised the potential of the car in qualifying today. I was struggling a bit with front grip which didnโt make it easy, but we still qualified in fourth,โ said Verstappen.
โIt would have been nice if it had continued raining all day but unfortunately it dried up just in time for the session,โ added the 20-year-old, referring to the washed out earlier practice.
Renaultโs Carlos Sainz was seventh fastest and Sauberโs Charles Leclerc an eye-catching eighth.
โI have no words to describe how I feel right now,โ Leclerc told reporters after reaching the final top 10 shootout for the first time.
Frenchman Romain Grosjean brought out red flags when he lost control and hit the tyre wall with just under eight minutes remaining of the final session.
He will still start 10th, the highest of the three home drivers.
There was gloom at McLaren, with last weekendโs Le Mans 24 Hours winner and double world champion Fernando Alonso only 16th. Belgian team mate Stoffel Vandoorne was 18th.
โOur performance has usually been so-so on Saturdays, with our average position in qualifying so far this year being 13th,โ said Alonso.
โThat said, I have scored points in every single race I have finished, and hopefully tomorrow will be one of those Sundays.โ
McLaren still fared better than former champions Williams, who had Russian Sergey Sirotkin 19th and Canadian Lance Stroll 20th.
Brendon Hartley will start behind them for Toro Rosso due to penalties arising from a breach of the engine regulations, with the New Zealander using his fourth of the season.
