Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took an impressive pole position ahead of title rival Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes at the French Grand Prix.

Hamilton was 0.128secs clear of team-mate Valtteri Bottas with the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez in fourth.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fifth ahead of the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, McLaren’s Lando Norris, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo completed the top 10.

Verstappen’s superiority was underlined by Hamilton, who said over the radio after the session: “That was a good lap – and still we were 0.2secs off?”

The Red Bull was 0.386secs clear following the first runs. Hamilton managed to find all that time and more on his second run and beat Verstappen’s first time but Verstappen improved again to stay comfortably clear of Hamilton.

It was a resounding statement from Red Bull after two rule changes were introduced for this weekend, one to clamp down on flexible rear wings and one to stiffen the monitoring of tyre pressures.

Red Bull were at the centre of both controversies over the past weeks but had insisted they had always stayed within the rules.

Verstappen, who lost the win in the last race in Azerbaijan after suffering a tyre failure with five laps go, said: “So far it has been a really positive weekend where normally it has been a bit difficult for us. To get pole position was really nice.

“No points are scored today but we have to finish it off tomorrow and try to get 25 points we lost in Baku. But it is great promise from our side.

“The car felt good yesterday [on race pace] in second practice, so looking forward to it.”

Hamilton said: “It has been a really hard weekend just trying to get the car into a happy place. You wouldn’t believe how many changes I’ve made and I’ve ended up back close to where we started. But I’ve generally been unhappy all weekend in the car.

“Max has been incredibly quick. They are quick down the straights. We have a race on our hands and we are loving the battle.”

Bottas, who had been the quicker Mercedes driver until qualifying after a weak performance in Baku, said: “It has been a strong weekend and for sure a lot better than two weeks ago.

“It is going to be close with Red Bull. I didn’t feel like there was that much more lap time to get so I can’t be too happy with third but I think Red Bull were faster today.”

Best of the rest

Sainz starred in the Ferrari to be best of the rest, beating team-mate Leclerc – who he described in an interview with BBC Sport this week as “the best qualifier on the grid” – by two positions.

Leclerc had been languishing about 0.5secs off Sainz’s pace for most of the weekend and apparently struggling. He cut the gap to 0.147secs on his final lap, but still had Gasly between the two Ferraris.

Gasly’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda crashed on his first flying lap and will start last.

Alonso had looked the quicker Alpine driver all weekend and, unlike in some previous races, managed to carry that form into qualifying as team-mate Esteban Ocon just missed out on the top 10 shootout in 11th place.

George Russell took 14th place in the Williams, continuing his run of making it into the second session of qualifying at every race this season.

And Mick Schumacher made it beyond the first session for the first time in his career only to crash on his final lap and not be able to run in the second session.