F1 News
Qualifying duels: Ratios within the teams start to take shape
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen took his first pole position this season at the French Grand Prix on Saturday. Red Bull Racing say they made a big step forward in Friday's second free practice, after which Verstappen was also on the pace throughout Saturday. As a result he is once again ahead of Sergio Perez in the qualifying duels between them. What does this look like for the rest of the field?
Team relationships starting to take shape
After the seventh qualifying session of the season, the relationships within some teams are starting to become clearer. Verstappen is far ahead of Perez, but so is Hamilton compared to Bottas. In the midfield, the differences are widening: Yuki Tsunoda, for example, has yet to beat his teammate Pierre Gasly in qualifying. The same goes for Nicholas Latifi compared to George Russell.
It is notable that Mick Schumacher is once again ahead of Nikita Mazepin, despite his crash in Q1. However, this needs some qualification: it is partly thanks to the same crash that he advanced to Q2. Carlos Sainz is catching up with Charles Leclerc: where Leclerc had a big lead, Sainz is catching up bit by bit.
At McLaren, Aston Martin and Alpine it's all the same. Lando Norris is slightly ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, the same goes for Vettel. Alonso is catching up with Ocon, and manages to more or less even the score.
Qualifying duels after France
| Mercedes | Hamilton - Bottas | 5-2 |
| Red Bull Racing | Verstappen - Perez | 6-1 |
| McLaren | Ricciardo - Norris | 3-4 |
| Aston Martin | Vettel - Stroll | 4-3 |
| Alpine | Alonso - Ocon | 3-4 |
| Ferrari | Leclerc - Sainz | 5-2 |
| AlphaTauri | Gasly - Tsunoda | 7-0 |
| Alfa Romeo | Giovinazzi - Raikkonen | 5-2 |
| Haas | Schumacher - Mazepin | 6-1 |
| Williams | Russell - Latifi | 7-0 |