Leclerc clinches crucial pole position ahead of Verstappen at the French Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc clinched pole position at the 2022 French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France.

Max Verstappen was in second position, 0.304 seconds slower than Leclerc. Sergio Pérez was in third position at the end of the session. Leclerc was aided by a tow from team-mate Carlos Sainz in the final qualification session.

Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris rounded off the top five positions in the qualification session.

The qualifying session started under hot conditions with air temperatures at 29 degrees C and track temperatures at 53 degrees C.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4), the middle range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Sainz and Kevin Magnussen will start at the back of the grid in the race due to power unit penalties.

Q1: Gasly and Schumacher knocked out

Lance Stroll led the drivers on to the track. The drivers were on the soft compound tyres which has shown heavy degradation in the hot conditions.

Leclerc went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m31.727s. Verstappen was in second position, 0.164 seconds slower than Leclerc. Pérez was in third position behind the championship rivals.

Sainz came out late as his grid penalties made the qualification position redundant. The Spaniard slotted into third position.

Mick Schumacher had a quick lap which took him out of the drop zone and into the top ten positions. The lap time was deleted and the young German was eliminated.

Q1 dropzone: Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher, Nicholas Latifi

Q2: Bottas and Vettel eliminated

Verstappen with a lap time of 1m31.990s was on top of the time charts in the early exchanges.

The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers came out on the used soft compound tyres and George Russell was in the drop zone.

Sainz then went to the top of the time charts with a storming lap time of 1m31.081s, almost a second quicker than Verstappen.

Russell and Hamilton slotted into sixth and fifth positions in the dying minutes of the session.

Sainz led a Ferrari 1-2 at the top of the time charts.

Q2 dropzone: Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel, Alexander Albon

Q3: Leclerc clinches pole position

The last all-important twelve minutes of the top ten shootout started with pole position being contested by Verstappen and Leclerc.

Ferrari used Sainz to give a tow to Leclerc down the straights and the Spaniard jumped out of the way at Turn 11. The added advantage gave Leclerc provisional pole position, albeit by the tiniest of margins of 0.008 seconds.

The other drivers were on used set of soft tyres on the first run. In the second set of flying laps, Sainz again towed Leclerc and he took pole position.

Leclerc was 0.304 seconds faster than Verstappen. A good strategic decision by Ferrari to give him the edge.

Pérez who has struggled all weekend finished in third position. The two Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers will work in tandem against the pole-sitter Leclerc on race day.

Hamilton with a good final lap slotted into fourth position ahead of Norris and Russell. The battle of the Britons will resume on race day.

Alonso, Tsunoda, Sainz and Magnussen rounded off the top ten positions.

Top 10: Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz, Kevin Magnussen

2022 French Grand Prix Qualification Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:31.727	1:31.216	1:30.872	17
2	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:31.891	1:31.990	1:31.176	14
3	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:32.354	1:32.120	1:31.335	20
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:33.041	1:32.274	1:31.765	19
5	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:32.672	1:32.777	1:32.032	14
6	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:33.109	1:32.633	1:32.131	20
7	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:32.819	1:32.631	1:32.552	17
8	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:33.394	1:32.836	1:32.780	20
9	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:32.297	1:31.081	DNF	10
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:32.756	1:32.649		9
11	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:33.404	1:32.922		12
12	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:33.346	1:33.048		12
13	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:33.034	1:33.052		13
14	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:33.285	1:33.276		15
15	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1:33.423	1:33.307		11
16	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:33.439			7
17	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:33.439			9
18	24	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:33.674			8
19	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Haas F1 Team	1:33.701			9
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:33.794			6