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Hamilton storms to French Pole

Neill Simpson 24 th June 2018

After a dominant free practice, Lewis Hamilton backed that up with a superb qualifying at the French Grand Prix, in a thrilling finish to Q3 at the Paul Ricard Circuit. Hamilton stormed to a 75th pole position of his career, finishing just one tenth quicker than teammate Valtteri Bottas, locking out the front of the grid for Mercedes.

Last weekend was damage limitation for the Mercedes duo after their power unit upgrade was delayed, however boosted by a ‘2.1’ spec engine the Silver Arrows look in far better shape this weekend in the South of France.


It was contrasting fortunes from Canada for Championship leader Sebastian Vettel, the German finishing third quickest nearly four tenths adrift of Hamilton’s 1:30.029 pole setting time, while Red Bull’s Verstappen and Ricciardo start fourth and fifth respectively.

What is surprising though is the fact that Ferrari have opted to start the race on the faster but more brittle ultrasoft tyres, while both Mercedes and Red Bull will be on the supersoft tyres option, perhaps the Italian team will be playing a different strategy around the Paul Ricard circuit.

For McLaren, and in particular Fernando Alonso, it was their worst qualifying of the season, the duo unable to get out of Q1, contrasting fortunes for the Spaniard who only last weekend was celebrating winning the Le Mans 24hr!


Speculation has been rife this week about Alonso’s future and shifting across the Atlantic and into the IndyCar Series, in his bid to add the Indy 500 to his Monaco and Le Mans wins, the Triple Crown of Motorsport. McLaren’s continued lack of improvement and performance could very well accelerate this decision, not to mention discourage Daniel Ricciardo from accepting a reported £20 million-a-season offer from the Woking based team.

Kimi Raikkonen starts from 6th, although the Finn was clocking times over half-a-second slower than his team-mate Vettel. One expects if this lack of form continues Raikkonen will either be looking for a new team or heading into retirement at the end of the season.

It appears both Raikkonen and Alonso won’t be repeating their victories in France on Sunday, Raikkonen winning in 2007 and Alonso in 2005.



Rain did play a part in Q3 yesterday, however it appears for today’s race the weather should remain dry.

With the engine upgrades, it appears only unreliability issues will stand in the way of a dominant Mercedes victory, and with Austria and the British Grand Prix coming up in consecutive weekends, this would the perfect opportunity for the Silver Arrows to accumulate the points in the battle for the Constructors Championship.

Qualifying timesheet

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:30.029
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 0.118s
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 0.371s
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 0.676s
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 0.866s
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1.028s
7 Carlos Sainz Renault 2.097s
8 Charles Leclerc Sauber 2.606s
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas 2.901s
10 Romain Grosjean Haas no time set
11 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:32.075
12 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:32.115
13 Sergio Perez Force India 1:32.454
14 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:32.460
15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:32.820
16 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:32.976
17 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:33.025
18 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:33.162
19 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 1:33.636
20 Lance Stroll Williams 1:33.729

Neill Simpson 24th June 2018
Fernando Alonso Formula One Lewis Hamilton Red Bull Sebastian Vettel