Max Verstappen aims to recoup Baku losses after securing French GP pole

Max Verstappen claimed pole in France — Photo: © LAT Images

French Grand Prix

Verstappen aims to recoup Baku losses after securing French GP pole

Current championship leader beats Hamilton in France

Will Gray

Saturday 19 June 2021 16:26 Updated: 16:35

Max Verstappen hopes to regain the 25 points lost in Baku after securing pole position at Paul Ricard.

Max Verstappen believes he has the car to turn pole position into a race victory in Sunday’s French Grand Prix after declaring himself “confident” with the race pace of his Red Bull.

The Dutch driver was left disappointed after crashing out of the last race with a tyre failure when victory was in his sights and he hopes to make up for that loss in Sunday’s race.

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“We have to finish it off tomorrow and try to get 25 points, what we lost in Baku,” said Verstappen. “No points are scored today but for us a great day but it’s a great performance from our side and I hope we can keep it up.”

Verstappen confident of toppling Mercedes

Verstappen's pole time of one minute 29.990secs was 0.258s faster than second-placed Lewis Hamilton around a Paul Ricard circuit that is typically more suited to the Mercedes cars.

The two championship rivals will start alongside each other on the front row of the grid with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez both on the second row.

Asked if he is confident of his race pace for Sunday, Verstappen said: “Yeah, I am actually. The car felt good yesterday in GP2 so looking forward to it.

“So far, it’s been a really positive weekend on a track where normally it’s been a bit difficult for us. Yesterday, FP2 was a bit of a turnaround and just made it even better today, to get pole position was really nice.”

It is the first pole position for current championship leader Verstappen since the opening race of the season in Bahrain and Red Bull’s first-ever pole position in France.