Le Castellet (France) (AFP)
Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) dethroned Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) to take pole position in the Formula 1 French Grand Prix, on the Paul-Ricard circuit in Le Castellet on Saturday.
Hamilton, who was on pole in the previous two editions in 2018 and 2019 and won them, placed second in qualifying for Round 7 of the season.
The second row goes to the Finnish Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) and the third row to the first Ferrari of the Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr and the French Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri).
Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Briton Lando Norris (McLaren), Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Australian Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) complete the top 10 of these "qualifiers".
The second Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine) will be 11th on the grid on Sunday at 3:00 p.m., in front of 15,000 spectators divided since Friday into three stands of 5,000 people.
In the drivers' standings, Verstappen is ahead of Hamilton by 4 lengths.
Among manufacturers, Red Bull has 26 points more than Mercedes.
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The first part of qualifying (Q1) was interrupted ten minutes after a crash by Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), then came to a standstill less than 30 seconds from its end after another accident by German Michael Schumacher (Haas) .
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