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By: Geoff Creighton

Summary

Status: Stopped
Here is our report from that session. Be sure to keep an eye (or two!) on Autosport and Motorsport.com through the rest of the day for all the key stories from the paddock after qualifying:
French Grand Prix qualifying: Hamilton leads all-Mercedes front row
 
 
Bottas says that "wasn't a perfect lap. I've been struggling to get perfect laps all weekend."
French F1 stars of the past Jean Alesi and Franck Montagny are on the grid to interview the drivers. "That wasn't too bad," is Hamilton's summary. "It feels great to be back in France, it's a beautiful place and we got a great response from the crowd."
 
Replays show Vettel ran very wide at Turn 6, and Raikkonen went straight on at the chicane. A messy Q3 for Ferrari there.
"Nice work Lewis, that's P1 mate. We've got Valtteri P2, Vettel P3."
Q3 result: 1 Hamilton; 2 Bottas +0.118s; 3 Vettel +0.371s; 4 Verstappen +0.676s; 5 Ricciardo +0.866s; 6 Raikkonen +1.028s; 7 Sainz +2.097s; 8 Leclerc +2.606s; 9 Magnussen +2.901s; 10 Grosjean no time
Verstappen and Ricciardo remain fourth and fifth.
Leclerc grabs eighth, ahead of Magnussen.
Vettel stays third, as Sainz and Magnussen cement seventh and eighth.
Hamilton does, his 1m30.029s takes it from Bottas by 0.118s. He's set for pole.
Chequered flag is out.
Will Hamilton retake pole...?
Bottas does improve enough - he nips ahead of Hamilton by 0.075s!
No one is doing anything special on these final runs, only Bottas is improving very slightly but not enough to challenge Hamilton.
 
 
"I can't see my tyre temperatures," says Magnussen. Haas "has a problem with the sensors", but tells him to do what he did before.
Raikkonen stays out but isn't doing any better.
Raikkonen had the track to himself for a while for what's turned out to be a wasted lap, but now Vettel, Sainz and the two Mercedes are out too.
Little moment for Raikkonen in Turns 3 and 4, which compromises his exit towards Turn 5.
Classic bit of "get that camera out of my face" from Grosjean as he stomps down the pitlane, crash helmet still on.
The session is back under way with a little over seven minutes left. Magnussen and Leclerc didn't manage to get first runs in before Grosjean's shunt.
 
 
 
 
The live GPS map had Grosjean off the road at Turn 5, which is why we initially got the corner wrong.
Replays show Grosjean spun in Turn 3, and he's actually in the barriers at Turn 4.
Grosjean reports that he is ok, but "I can't engage reverse, I can't engage reverse".
Order at the stoppage: 1 Hamilton; 2 Bottas +0.095s; 3 Vettel +0.178s; 4 Verstappen +0.483s; 5 Ricciardo +0.673s; 6 Raikkonen +0.835s; 7 Sainz +2.237s
Red flag for the Haas in the barriers at Turn 5.
Sainz is seventh so far.
Grosjean has crashed!
Verstappen and Ricciardo go fourth and fifth, pushing Raikkonen to sixth.
Then Mercedes comes through and it becomes Hamilton first, Bottas second - but Vettel is still within 0.178s of provisional pole in third.
Vettel and Raikkonen go first and second for now...
Bottas is fastest of all in sector two, but doesn't overturn Hamilton's advantage completely.

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