French GP qualifying facts and stats: Verstappen’s pole is Red Bull’s eighth since hybrid era began in 2014

An absorbing qualifying session saw Max Verstappen take pole at the French Grand Prix over the resurgent Mercedes duo, throwing up some interesting stats and facts along the way...

• Verstappen takes his second pole of the season - First non-Mercedes on the front row at Paul Ricard since 1990

• It is only Verstappen's fifth career pole, and only Red Bull's eighth pole in the hybrid era (145th race)

• Lewis Hamilton has started second more often than any other position this season. This will be his fourth P2 start

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• Valtteri Bottas has only qualified on the front row once this season, when he took pole in Portugal

• Sergio Perez starts fourth, and the Mexican hasn't got within 0.350s of his team mate in qualifying in the last four races

• Carlos Sainz has out-qualified his team mate for only the second time this season, and it is the first time Charles Leclerc has been beaten by ateam mate at Paul Ricard

• Pierre Gasly has qualified in the top six for the fifth time in seven races having only done this once in 2020

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• Leclerc could only manage seventh after his back to back poles in Monaco and Bak

• Lando Norris maintains his record of making Q3 at every race this season, but has only qualified in the top six once, when he was fifth in Monaco

• Fernando Alonso has a fourth Q3 appearance of the season, one more than his team mate Esteban Ocon has managed

• Ocon misses Q3 for the third straight race

• Sebastian Vettel is out in Q2 for the second straight race, but did finish second last time out

• Mick Schumacher gives Haas their first Q2 appearance since the Nurburgring in 2020, after 12 consecutive races of both drivers exiting in Q1

• Nicholas Latifi failed to make Q2 by just 0.002s, losing out to his team mate George Russell yet again

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• Kimi Raikkonen was out in Q1 for the third time this year

• Lance Stroll has been eliminated in Q1 every time he has visited Paul Ricard, and this is his second consecutive Q1 elimination

• Yuki Tsunoda is out in Q1 for the fourth time in seven races this season