France GP Qualifying Report

There were no surprises under the sunny French skies as the first part of Qualifying ended.  Albon made it through despite spinning and Latifi didn't and the writing is on the wall for his F1 career, I'm sure it would be more widely talked about if DannyRic weren't about to receive his marching orders.  DR3 and Mick Schumacher both had times deleted for exceeding track limits, which cost the German but not the Aussie.  And so the heart sinks as it looks like another race weekend where all eyes are on the white lines.  Not in the fun, Studio 54 way either.

Sainz and Magnussen were destined to start at the back of the grid, following changes to power units.  Both felt the need to put in speedy laps in Q2 to scare the opposition.  Albon briefly looked like he could make it through to Q3 but then tumbled down to 15th.  Out in 11th was DannyRic.

Ferrari ensured Sainz was through to the final Qualifying session to be out on the track, giving a tow to his team mate.  Red Bull didn't seem to want to play that game.  It gave LeClerc pole position though.  Norris was able to put his McLaren inbetween the two Mercedes with Alonso and Tsunoda finishing the running cars.

It would be interesting to see LeClerc and Verstappen battling on even ground.  Will there be reliability issues?  Will "track limits" be cried often?  Who will be able to look after the tyres best?