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By: Geoff Creighton

Summary

Hamilton takes pole for the French Grand Prix
Bottas suffers a scuffy lap on his pole attempt in the final moments of Q3
Leclerc third, Vettel only manages seventh for Ferrari
McLaren impresses with Norris and Sainz in fifth and sixth respectively
Status: Stopped
Thanks for being with us today - we'll be back tomorrow for the French Grand Prix! Here's the quali report, and we'll see you then:
French GP qualifying: Hamilton beats Bottas to pole, Vettel seventh
 
"I'm looking forward to a good race with this one!" interjects Hamilton during Leclerc's interview.
Leclerc: "At the end, pretty happy with my lap, unfortunately it was not enough and we need to keep working, hopefully we will close the gap at one point. A good start [tomorrow] will be very important, we are fast on the straights, they are fast on the corners."
Bottas: "I think Lewis had a really good lap, it's been super close between us all weekend and it's all about fine details. There was a couple of corners where my line didn't work and I had to work them out. It's been a strong package we have here this weekend, and hopefully it'll be the same tomorrow."
Hamilton: "It's not an easy track, it's very technical. Valtteri's been very quick all weekend, I've been chipping away and the last two laps were the ones. It's quite gusty, and you have to be quite dynamic with how you attack the lap."
Everyone in the top 8 will begin tomorrow's race on mediums - Gasly and Giovinazzi seem like they'll be a bit hindered by the gooey, melty softs.
Bottas was all over the shop in that lap, the car just didn't seem quite hooked up enough in that final sector.
Big result for McLaren, an all-orange third row for tomorrow.
Q3 results: 1 Hamilton, 2 Bottas, 3 Leclerc, 4 Verstappen, 5 Norris, 6 Sainz, 7 Vettel, 8 Ricciardo, 9 Gasly, 10 Giovinazzi.
Leclerc improves, but stays third, seven tenths off the pace. But Vettel is only seventh!
Verstappen pips Norris to what is currently fourth place by 0.009s!
Gasly's flying lap on the softs is only good enough for eighth - and that's with Giovinazzi failing to set a representative time, and Vettel still on his lap.
Hamilton does - to a 1m28.319s.
Chequered flag is out. Bottas doesn't improve.
It's especially over and done with now that Hamilton has gone four tenths quicker in the second sector. Barring something extremely unusual, Lewis Hamilton will be on pole tomorrow.
Bottas drops two tenths in the first sector. This pole battle might be over and done with.
Bottas and Hamilton begin the final round of flying laps, with just a minute left until the chequered flag.
Everyone now heads back out, with Gasly joining his rivals in equipping a fresh set of softs.
"What happened on the straights between turns 9 and 11?" queries Leclerc. "I lost so much time..." Seems his pace has gone with the wind...it's rather breezy at Le Castellet.
 
Verstappen is a full 1.2s off Hamilton, and is just mere thousandths up on Sainz. There really is no 'big three' teams in F1 this weekend, at least not on one-lap pace.
A missed upshift for Vettel, and he immediately calls himself into the pits.
Current order: 1 Hamilton, 2 Bottas, 3 Leclerc, 4 Verstappen, 5 Sainz, 6 Norris, 7 Ricciardo, 8 Gasly, 9 Vettel (no time), 10 Giovinazzi (no time).
As blindingly quick as the Mercedes is, it does look very squirmy in the low-speed corners.
Leclerc is up to third place, but is nearly six tenths off the pace. Vettel is over a second down in the second sector - and bails out of his effort.
Bottas sets the initial pace, 1m28.650s - but Hamilton is quicker with a 1m28.448s. That first sector proved crucial.
Hamilton then 0.001s quicker in the second sector - but the third sector is longer in terms of laptime than the previous two combined.
Sainz seems to have delayed his lap to steal a slipstream on one of the many long straights here. Smort.
Hamilton is a tenth quicker than Bottas in the first sector on their respective first attempts.
Every driver but Giovinazzi has now gone out on track, and Red Bull has sent out Gasly on mediums! Curious, but not entirely illogical.
The two McLarens kick off Q3 track action after a minute and a half of silence - although Sainz then parks up on pitlane exit and delays his out-lap.
The green lights are on for Q3. 12 minutes - and presumably a bit after the chequered flag - to decide the pole-sitter.
 
 
Replays show Hulkenberg making a right mess of the Turn 8-9 chicane, which was likely the difference between Q3 and starting 13th.
Massively impressive for McLaren, looking rather good at Paul Ricard. And a shout-out to Antonio Giovinazzi, without bothering to check the facts it seems that's his best F1 grid spot so far.
Top eight in that session will be starting on mediums then - we believe - while former GP2 team-mates/title rivals Giovinazzi and Gasly will equip the soft.

What a qualifying for Giovinazzi!
Advancing to Q3: 1 Bottas, 2 Vettel, 3 Hamilton, 4 Leclerc, 5 Norris, 6 Verstappen, 7 Sainz, 8 Ricciardo, 9 Giovinazzi, 10 Gasly.
Eliminated: 11 Albon, 12 Raikkonen, 13 Hulkenberg, 14 Perez, 15 Magnussen.

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