The Briton, who hammered the opposition in the first summit finish of the Tour in 2013 and last year, leads fourth-placed Quintana, the runner-up in those two years, by 23 seconds.
In 2013 and last year, the Team Sky rider was leading Quintana by about two minutes going into the first rest day.
Froome, who took the overall lead with a stunning attack in the final descent of the eighth stage, was, however, unable to drop Movistar’s Quintana in the final ascent to Arcalis the next day and the Colombian never looked in trouble even if he failed to attack.
Froome, however, is confident he is well equipped to add a third Tour title to his trophy cabinet, especially because he feels he has the best team support.
“It really is a good place to be at the moment and I’m really happy to have the yellow jersey on my shoulders, tactically and obviously for the morale for the team,” the 31-year-old said yesterday.
“Tactically, it just puts the shoe on the other foot. It’s up to other teams now to have to go out there and try and gain back time that they’ve lost already.
“It means with the team that I’ve got, they’ve shown themselves over the last few days just in terms of numbers in the final that we do have the strongest team.”
Others disagreed on the Team Sky riders’ form.
Frenchman Romain Bardet (AG2r-La Mondiale), who is sixth overall, 44 seconds off the pace, said he was expecting more from the British outfit.
“Sky are very powerful but I expected them to be much stronger yesterday. In the final climb, Froome was a bit alone,” he said.
Froome might be wondering if he has what it takes to drop Quintana as he used to and he remains in the Colombian’s range of fire.
“If Froome is unbeatable at the moment, I feel Nairo is, too,” Quintana’s teammate, Alejandro Valverde, said.
“There’s still a long way to go. You must attack when it’s your real time. You never know when it comes,” he warned.
Meanwhile, Froome said the Tour would suffer form the absence of Alberto Contador, although he admitted it would make his own life easier.
Contador succumbed to illness and injury during Sunday’s ninth stage, quitting just over 80km into the 184.5km trek through the Pyrenees.
The 33-year-old Spaniard, a two-time former Tour winner, had crashed on both the opening two stages, injuring his right side in the process.
To compound matters he woke up on Sunday with a fever, yet before quitting he still tried to go on the attack on the first climb of the tough mountainous stage that started in his native Spain before finishing in Andorra.
“I was quite surprised to hear that Alberto Contador was in his car,” Froome said after the finish.
“As he had attacked, he obviously was not feeling too bad, but I guess he was still suffering from his injuries.”
Contador has made a name for himself as a fearless rider who is prepared to take huge risks in search of victory.
