Red Bull rescued a dramatic victory for Max Verstappen with a powerful undercut and a bold second stop after his first-lap error put Lewis Hamilton in the ascendancy at the French Grand Prix.

A third consecutive win for Red Bull – two for Verstappen and one for Sergio Perez – boosted their leads in both the drivers' and constructors' championships.

Verstappen looked to be in trouble when he let Hamilton through at Turn 2, but his team's strategy turned the race on its head, extending his advantage to 12 points in the standings.

The championship leader – starting from pole – kept his nose in front at Turn 1 but then ran wide, exiting the track to give up position to Hamilton, who looked at ease at the front of the race.

Pit strategy proved pivotal, though, as Mercedes called in Valtteri Bottas – running in third – before team-mate Hamilton.

Red Bull followed as Verstappen boxed, causing Mercedes to react again, calling for "Hammer time" from their lead driver before bringing him in for a 2.1-second stop, the fastest of the three.

However, a flying out lap from Verstappen meant Hamilton could not quite get out ahead of his rival, instead settling in behind the Dutchman for a lengthy battle alongside Bottas.

Verstappen worked hard to keep Hamilton out of DRS range and gradually built a gap to the fading Silver Arrows that encouraged Red Bull to gamble with another stop and a switch to medium tyres.

Perez, who pitted after the other three, let Verstappen through to quickly take chunks out of the Mercedes lead, with Hamilton warned of a "painful" finish.

Bottas failed to hold Verstappen up, opening a gap for the rapid Red Bull and fuming at his team for delaying a second stop, with Perez soon following his team-mate through.

Red Bull cut it fine, but Verstappen eased past Hamilton on the penultimate lap after only a short tussle to land a significant blow in a thrilling title race.

Lewis Hamilton is confident Mercedes are in a good position to challenge Max Verstappen on Sunday despite Red Bull's latest strong showing at the French Grand Prix.

Verstappen leads the Formula One drivers' championship while Red Bull sit top of the constructors' standings.

Even when Verstappen crashed out of a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix last time out, team-mate Sergio Perez delivered maximum points in his first win for the team.

It was the first time in the Hybrid Era there had been two different Red Bull drivers triumphant in consecutive races.

The Austrian outfit are set for another strong outing in France after Verstappen secured pole position and Perez qualified fourth fastest, aiming to extend his streak of four consecutive top-five finishes.

In his post-qualifying media duties, Verstappen described himself as "quite confident" heading into the race.

"I knew it was going to be better than the last time we were here but this good I didn't expect, so that's promising for us," he said.

"We just have to keep on going, keep on pushing to try to make it better."

However, Hamilton starts from second and Mercedes colleague Valtteri Bottas is third, giving the Silver Arrows a chance even against a car with no obvious flaws.

"Of course, it seems [Red Bull] are just strong everywhere," Hamilton said. "Street circuits, it doesn't seem to matter where they go, they're very strong and we've got some areas we just need to improve.

"Obviously today I heard that we're losing out mostly on the straights, so we'll try to figure-out what that is.

"But it's great that we are second and third. It puts us in the middle of the Red Bulls, it gives us a chance to really apply pressure tomorrow – but it's just as close as ever before.

"Maybe they seem to have eked a little bit further forwards than we were perhaps in Barcelona."

Hamilton is two wins shy of an unprecedented 100 in Formula One, but will have the more modest aim of correcting a worrying run of form on Sunday.

He was seventh in Monaco and 15th in Baku and has not missed out on the podium in three straight races in the Hybrid Era.

The Turkish Grand Prix has been withdrawn from the Formula One calendar for June and replaced by a second race in Austria.

Istanbul was was added to the schedule two weeks ago as a replacement for the Canadian Grand Prix, which was called off due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

However, that June 13 event has now been dropped for the same reason, with Turkey added to the travel 'red list' for many countries.

The weekend of June 11-13 will now be left clear, while the French GP has been brought forward by a week to June 18-20.

There will then be consecutive weekends of action at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, with the Styrian GP followed by the Austrian GP.

A record 23 races therefore still remain scheduled for the 2021 season, which continues with the Monaco GP next week.

F1 president Stefano Domenicali said: "We were all looking forward to racing in Turkey but the travel restrictions in place have meant we are not able to be there in June.

"F1 has shown again that it is able to react quickly to developments and find solutions and we are delighted that we will have a double-header in Austria, meaning our season remains at 23 races.

"I want to thank the promoter and authorities in Turkey for all of their efforts in recent weeks and want to thank the promoters in France and Austria for their speed, flexibility and enthusiasm in accommodating this solution.

"We have had very good conversations with all the other promoters since the start of the year and continue to work closely with them during this period."

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton prevailed at the Spanish Grand Prix last time out and leads the drivers' standings after the first four rounds of the 2021 season.