Verstapen wins the French Grand Prix

Content will continue after the ad

Advertising

–

The Dutchman and his teammate Mexican Serhio Perez were the only pilots in the last qualifying session to complete only 16 laps on the 5,842-kilometer track.

This did not prevent Verstapen from showing the best lap time at the end of the qualification – one minute and 29,990 seconds. Seven-time British world champion Lewis Hamilton (“Mercedes”) lost 0.258 seconds to him, but a teammate Valteri Botass Finland was still 0.128 seconds behind.

With Botas on Sunday, Perez will be on the second starting line, followed by Spaniard Carlos Sains (“Ferrari“), Frenchman Pierre Gasli (” Alpha Tauri “), Charles Clare from Monaco (“Ferrari”), British Lendo Noriss (“McLaren“), Fernando Alonso from Spain (“Alpine”) and an Australian Daniels Rikjardo (“McLaren”), who took tenth position.

In previous seasons, Hamilton celebrated the victory in the last two races in France.

For Verstapen, this was the second pole position of the season. He got his first at the opening stage of the season in Bahrain.

“This has been a positive weekend, although the French track often causes us difficulties,” said Verstapen, who is the overall leader after the victory. “Today was a good day, but the qualifying victory must be transferred to the competition to regain the 25 points lost to Baku.”

Saturday’s qualification was intermittent. The first qualifying session ended prematurely due to the accident of Japanese Juki Cunoda (“Alpha Tauri”), but the second session was temporarily suspended due to the accident of Mika Schumacher (“Hass”). In both cases, red flags were hoisted.

Cunoda’s accident prevented Lens Strol (“Aston Martin”) from qualifying, leaving him among the top 15 in the second session.

Although Schumacher suffered an accident, he managed to enter the second qualifying session for the first time, but due to the technical problems of the car, he did not return to the track.

The French Grand Prix will take place on Sunday.

After six stages in the overall F-1 standings, Verstapen is the leader with 105 points, Hamilton has four less points, and Perez is third with 69 points.

In 2020, the seventh F-1 title in his career and the fourth in a row was won by the British Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes. Previously, only the legendary German driver Michael Schumacher managed to win seven times.

Hamilton teammate Botass finished second, while Dutchman Verstapen from the Red Bull team finished third.

The Mercedes team also won the seventh Constructor’s Cup in a row.

It is planned to have a record number of races this season (23).

–