Lewis Hamilton seized pole position for the French Grand Prix in track record time as Mercedes, chasing their 10th successive win, swept the front row of the grid in dominant fashion on Saturday. The Formula One world championship leader was 0.286 seconds quicker than team mate Valtteri Bottas. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualified third with teammate 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-times world champion Hamilton, last year's winner from pole at Le Castellet's 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. Hamilton also triumphed in the last two of 2018. 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. "The wind changed direction and there was a couple of corners my line didn't work and I had to work it out but Lewis had a better lap," said the Finn. Mercedes have looked to be in a class of their own all weekend, with Hamilton or Bottas fastest in every practice session with Leclerc, rather than Vettel, consistently the best of the rest. Vettel struggled, backing out of his first hot lap and then failing to string together all the sectors smoothly on his second attempt. "I don't know what happened, I lost so much momentum there was no point to finish that lap," said the German, who starts behind the Renault-powered McLarens of British rookie Lando Norris (fifth) and Spaniard Carlos Sainz (sixth). "Some laps it felt good and others it didn't. I didn't get the best out of the car but it was difficult for me, but some laps I didn't have he grip I had before." Vettel's time of 1:29.799 was eighth tenths of a second slower than Leclerc's best. Leclerc, who starts with Red Bull's Max Verstappen alongside, asked the team over the radio to get Vettel to speed up but the Monegasque said his lap had not been compromised. 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. Hamilton, meanwhile, mocked Ferrari on Saturday for presenting a television analysis by Indian racer Karun Chandhok as evidence supporting their failed bid to have the Canadian Grand Prix result overturned. Stewards rejected the Italian team's request for a review of the Montreal race, won by Hamilton after Ferrari's Vettel was given a time penalty, at the French Grand Prix on Friday. It emerged then that former F1 racer Chandhok's post-race video analysis for Sky Sports television formed part of what Ferrari had billed as "quite overwhelming" new and relevant evidence. "When I arrived in the morning (on Friday) I heard that it was Karun Chandhok's video that was the new evidence and I was pretty relaxed after that," a smiling Hamilton told reporters after qualifying on pole position for Mercedes at Le Castellet. Asked whether he felt "untouchable" in performance terms, Hamilton indicated Bottas was keeping him grounded. "I do feel strong but each weekend (that) I come in and feel I'm starting on the right foot, Valtteri goes and puts in bloody good laps every time. I'm constantly being pushed by Valtteri," he said. "There's some races where we as a team are not being pushed certainly as hard as we'd like to be by the others," added Hamilton in another dig at Ferrari. "But the battle within us is, if you look at a lot of the races, half a 10th to a 10th and a half between Valtteri and I," he said. "I still have my work cut out, still have to perform and deliver. So the work ethic is exactly the same and the stress is exactly the same as if we were fighting the Ferraris." Hamilton, the winner of five of seven races in a dominant season for Mercedes and who leads Bottas by 29 points in the championship, indicated also that the best was yet to come. "I'm definitely getting a lot more comfortable in the car as we get into the season and I don't expect that to stop," said the 34-year-old. — Reuters
