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

Verstappen, who has looked the pace-setter all weekend, beat Hamilton by 0.258 seconds for the Dutchman's first pole since the opening race in Bahrain.

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?"

Hamilton managed to close in on Verstappen on his second run after the Red Bull was 0.386secs clear following the first runs but the world championship leader had more than enough pace in hand to improve enough on his second lap 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, when he 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."