French Grand Prix qualifying: Hamilton on pole as Leclerc stuns for Sauber

A spot of rain during the practice session earlier in the day changed the track conditions, forcing some quick thinking. McLaren were suffering most, with Fernando Alonso loitering in the drop zone and Stoffel Vandoorne managing to go only a tenth of a second quicker initially - both ended up eliminated at the first hurdle.

Lance Stroll managed to take a blow to his car's bodywork by driving over the bumps next to the rumble strips, and confessed as much to his Williams garage. They wouldn't have been happy anyway - their cars were the two slowest on the track and made a quick exit.

At the top of the leaderboard, it was Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton leading the way, with Max Verstappen of Red Bull in P2.

OUT: Fernando Alonso (McLaren), Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso), Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren), Sergey Sirotkin (Williams), Lance Stroll (Williams)

The wet weather continued as the drivers got a handle on this new environment - and everyone got onto the track as soon as they could to get a hot lap in.

Hamilton shaved a good half-second off his previous quickest time to lead the way, and team-mate Valtteri Bottas started to pick up the speed himself.

The Ferraris rose to the challenge, copying the grip the Mercedes was getting, and promptly bumped the Finn back down to P4.

Absolutely storming performance from Sauber's Charles Leclerc, who's been very impressive this season, putting in a sizzingly hot lap after the chequered flag waved - he went through to Q3 in P10, as he knocked Esteban Ocon down into the drop zone, and yelled a big "WOOHOO!" over the radio to his team. That's the first Q3 appearance for the team in three whole years.

Ferrari were quick to point out that they had five of their power units through to the top ten shoot-out. Vettel was the first to record a time, but he was quickly knocked down to P3 as both the Mercedes went quicker.

Grosjean, in his home race and in the midst of a very poor season, capped it all off by smacking into the barriers, oversteering into Turn 3 and doing his suspension some damage while getting the entire session red-flagged.

Excellent stuff from Mercedes, continuing to lead the way, but the fantastic driving from Sauber's Leclerc alongside Renault's Carlos Sainz was also pretty eye-catching. The weather could play a real role in the race tomorrow.

Both Williams cars being knocked out in Q1 is no longer really a surprise, but after a year in which McLaren's reliability has improved, an early double elimination was very unexpected.

The Force Indias were subdued during qualifying, and it's possible that Leclerc's decision to drive in Q3 and degrade that set of tyres further may backfire as the middle of the field battle it out tomorrow. The Pink Panthers have a few things to prove.

Hamilton - Bottas - Vettel