Motorsport-Magazin.com – With his pole position for the Formula 1 race in France, Max Verstappen spoke a word of power in the championship battle against Mercedes. The Red Bull driver successfully fended off Lewis Hamilton’s offensives in qualifying and thus secured the best starting position to extend his lead in the overall standings on Sunday. After a difficult start to the weekend, the joy about the pole position was all the greater.
“We took a good step forward from FP2, which we have basically continued until today,” said Verstappen, who underlined his claim to pole position at the dress rehearsal in the third practice session with the fastest time on Saturday morning. With almost eight tenths of a second ahead of Valtteri Bottas, he was the clear favorite for qualifying.
In Q3, however, Hamilton came much closer to him than in training. The defending champion was missing two and a half tenths of a second on Verstappen. “The conditions were a little different in FP3, but we showed again in qualifying that we have good pace,” said the Dutchman. After the victories in Monaco and Baku, Red Bull had reckoned with significantly more resistance from Mercedes for Le Castellet, especially since the world champions dominated the Paul Ricard circuit in 2018 and 2019.
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Formula 1, France: Does Hamilton have a chance against Red Bull ?: (09:44 min.)
Special triumph over Mercedes domination in Le Castellet
“I’m really happy with that. Traditionally, this wasn’t a good racetrack for us, and being able to take pole here makes me very happy. I knew it would be better than last time here. But so good? I didn’t expect that, “says Verstappen, who will start the race in France for the second time this season from first place on the grid.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner sees Verstappen’s pole as another groundbreaking success in the world championship fight against Mercedes. “That certainly gives us more confidence,” the Brit told Sky Sports F1. “Mercedes has had everything under control on this racetrack in recent years. If we can beat them here, we can do it anywhere.”
In the world championship, Verstappen is four points ahead of Hamilton before the seventh race. Two weeks ago in Baku he lost his chance to extend his lead due to a puncture. “Of course there are no points today, but it was a great day for us and we have to finish tomorrow to get the 25 points we lost in Baku,” said the 23-year-old.
Red Bull builds on a top starting position in France
With team-mate Sergio Perez in fourth place, Red Bull has the ideal starting position, as in Azerbaijan, to strategically shield Verstappen in the fight against the Mercedes duo. “We want to win the start and drive as far ahead as possible in order to gain the DRS lead,” says Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko at the ORF microphone.
Horner expects that Mercedes can be dangerous again despite the qualifying defeat and the weak races in Monaco and Baku. “Mercedes were very quick in Barcelona and we expect them to be competitive here too,” he said. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull was strategically beaten on the way to victory.
“It’s great for us that we have Checo at the front. We saw in the job he did in Baku two weeks ago that two cars give us different strategic options,” said Horner. “We are in good shape for the race. It is important that we have good starts and good pit stops and implement a good strategy.”
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