Mercedes’ Hamilton on pole in France

The Formula One world championship leader was 0.286 seconds quicker than teammate Valtteri Bottas. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified third, with Sebastian Vettel a distant seventh on a distinctly off day for the German. The pole, in a time of one minute 28.319 seconds, was a record-extending 86th of Hamilton’s career and his third of the season.

“I’m happy that I got the potential out of the car, the team did a fantastic job,” said five-time world champion Hamilton, last year’s winner from pole at the Paul Ricard circuit. “We’ve just been chipping away at improving the set-up of the car,” added the Briton, who is 29 points clear of Bottas after seven races — all won by the pair.

Bottas was fastest in the second phase of qualifying, but could not match Hamilton’s sizzling pace when it mattered in the final shoot-out. Mercedes has looked to be in a class of its own all weekend, with Hamilton or Bottas fastest in every practice session. Vettel struggled, backing out of his first hot lap and then failing to string together all the sectors smoothly on his second attempt.

He starts behind the Renault-powered McLarens of British rookie Lando Norris (fifth) and Spaniard Carlos Sainz (sixth). Australian Daniel Ricciardo starts eighth for Renault and Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly lines up ninth for his home race, with Italian Antonio Giovinazzi 10th for Alfa Romeo.

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