Hamilton edges Bottas to F1 Spanish GP pole position
Reigning Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton pipped Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas to pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s opening Q3 lap proved to be pivotal to landing an all-important pole position in Barcelona, with neither Mercedes driver able to improve on their final flying efforts.
The six-times world champion ultimately outpaced Bottas by just 0.059s on a 1m15.584 for his fifth pole around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
With the 92nd pole of his career, Hamilton has now become the first F1 driver in history to seal 150 front-row starts.
The Briton has won the previous three Spanish Grands Prix for Mercedes, which recorded its seventh front-row lockout at the circuit in the last eight years.
Behind the dominant Mercedes duo was once again Max Verstappen, who was 0.708s adrift in his Red Bull.
On his return to F1 since recovering from coronavirus, Sergio Perez led Racing Point’s charge to secure a second-row start in fourth, just over a tenth clear than teammate Lance Stroll in P5.
There was an improved qualifying showing from Alex Albon, who placed his Red Bull in sixth, despite lapping seven-tenths slower than Verstappen.
It will be an all-McLaren row four on the grid, with Carlos Sainz narrowly out-qualifying teammate Lando Norris to grab seventh. Norris was just 0.003s clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who took ninth.
Pierre Gasly continued his impressive form as he starred again in qualifying on his way to claiming 10th on the grid in his AlphaTauri.
Just 0.002s separated Sebastian Vettel from making it into Q3 as the German failed to progress into the final segment of qualifying for the second race in a row. The four-times world champion was just a tenth faster than AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat.
Daniel Ricciardo was only P13 on a disappointing Saturday for Renault despite the Australian’s high hopes of being able to pull off another starring qualifying performance after claiming fifth last time out at Silverstone.
Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen matched his qualifying position from last year’s Spanish Grand Prix as he took 14th, impressively outpacing the second Renault of Esteban Ocon on Medium tyres.
Haas’ rapid Friday pace failed to translate into qualifying as both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were eliminated in Q1, with Magnussen edging his teammate by a tenth.
Just 0.010s behind the Haas duo, George Russell maintained his 100 percent record of out-qualifying Williams stablemate Nicholas Latifi this year to grab 18th, with the Briton’s advantage standing at nearly half a second.
A scruffy qualifying session left Antonio Giovinazzi anchored to the back of the grid in his Alfa Romeo as the Italian ran wide on his first Q1 lap before failing to improve significantly on his last run.
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