Bottas takes dominant Spanish GP pole

Valtteri Bottas will start the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position after dominating qualifying at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday, heading up a Mercedes front row lock-out.

Formula 1 drivers' championship leader Bottas bounced back from a spin earlier in final practice to take his third consecutive pole position, finishing six-tenths of a second clear of teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Bottas' lap of 1m15.406s marked a new track record and came on his first run in Q3, with his second lap being half a second slower - but still good enough for pole.

Mercedes once again stood clear of the field in qualifying as Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finished eight-tenths down on Bottas' lap, losing the bulk of the time in the final sector as he was left P3.

Teammate Charles Leclerc could only qualify fifth in the sister Ferrari SF90 after being forced to go for two runs late in the session after floor damage sustained earlier in Q2 when running over a kerb that required repairing.

Max Verstappen split the Ferrari drivers in P4 for Red Bull, with teammate Pierre Gasly securing P6 on the grid.

Haas led the midfield battle as Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen locked out the fourth row of the grid in P7 and P8, with Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top 10 for Toro Rosso and Renault respectively.

McLaren suffered a double-Q2 exit as Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz could only qualify P11 and P13 respectively, split by Toro Rosso's Alexander Albon in 12th. Sainz's hopes of reaching Q3 for his home race were dashed when he made a mistake on his final lap, running wide and dipping a wheel into the gravel at Turn 12.

Kimi Raikkonen could only take 14th for Alfa Romeo ahead of Racing Point's Sergio Perez, who finished over half a second off advancing.

Nico Hulkenberg dropped out in Q1 after only managing a single quick run following an off-track excursion early in the session. A lock-up at Turn 4 sent Hulkenberg straight on, causing him to nudge the wall and break his front wing. While Renault was able to repair it in time to send him out again late on, the German could only qualify 16th.

Lance Stroll's streak of Q1 exits continued as he finished 17th for Racing Point ahead of Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi, who was half a second off teammate Raikkonen's pace.

Williams drivers George Russell and Robert Kubica propped up the running order once again in P19 and P20 respectively. While Russell outqualified his teammate by 1.2 seconds, he will drop to the back of the grid as a result of a penalty for a gearbox change.

The Spanish Grand Prix begins at 3:10pm local time on Sunday (2:10pm BST).