Hamilton takes 75th F1 pole in French GP qualifying

Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's French Grand Prix from pole position after edging out Formula 1 teammate Valtteri Bottas in the final stages of qualifying at Paul Ricard, heading up a one-two finish for Mercedes.

Having led both practice sessions on Friday, Hamilton entered qualifying as the favourite for pole position, with his first run in Q3 putting him at the head of the timesheets by less than one-tenth of a second.

Following a brief stoppage following a crash for Romain Grosjean, most drivers struggled to improve their laps on their second and final efforts of the session, only for Bottas to dig deep and wrestle pole away from Hamilton with his last lap.

Hamilton managed to respond with his final Q3 time, though, turning in a time of 1m30.029s to grab pole by 0.118 seconds from Bottas, with Mercedes locking out the front row of the grid for the second time this season. The result also marked Hamilton's 75th pole position in F1, extending his lead at the top of the all-time pole position holders list.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel paid the price for a mistake on his final lap as he failed to improve his lap time, finshing three-tenths of a second off the pace in third for Ferrari ahead of the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen will start sixth, having lost his final Q3 run due to a puncture.

Carlos Sainz Jr. led the midfield fight for Renault in seventh, while Charles Leclerc starred for Sauber by reaching Q3 for the first time in his F1 career, taking eighth overall. Haas' Kevin Magnussen was left frustrated in ninth, believing Raikkonen compromised his final run and held him up as the American team failed to take the fight to its immediate midfield rivals.

Magnussen's teammate Romain Grosjean will line up 10th on the grid tomorrow after crashing out of Q3, preventing him from setting a lap time. Grosjean had been vying to finish as the best of the rest behind the top three teams in qualifying, only for a mistake at Turn 3 to send him spinning off the track and into the wall, sparking a red flag period in Q3.

After losing track time in both second and third practice, Force India's difficult weekend continued as both Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez were eliminated in Q2, finishing 11th and 13th respectively. Nico Hulkenberg split the pair in 12th for Renault, leaving the German surprised after a clean lap. Pierre Gasly led Toro Rosso's charge in P14, while Sauber's Marcus Ericsson made it through to Q2 for the first time this season before taking 15th.

Six days on from his victory for Toyota at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Fernando Alonso came back down to earth with a bump as he was dumped out of qualifying in Q1 for the first time this season. Despite improving on his final lap of the session, Alonso's time was not good enough to secure him a Q2 berth, leaving him 16th on the grid for Sunday's race.

Brendon Hartley struggled to 17th in qualifying for Toro Rosso, lapping six-tenths of a second slower than teammate Gasly in Q1. The New Zealander will start the race last regardless after being hit with a penalty for a series of power unit changes. Stoffel Vandoorne followed in P18 for McLaren, with the Williams duo of Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll suffering their fifth double-Q1 knockout in eight races, finishing 19th and 20th respectively.

The French Grand Prix gets underway at 16:10 CEST (15:10 BST) on Sunday.