Hamilton claims his hundredth career bar

Lewis Hamilton got his hundredth career pole with a spectacular display in the Spanish Grand Prix Qualification. It looked like it did Max Verstappen would spoil his weekend, but missed by the skin of his teeth.

The start of qualifying was delayed by 10 minutes due to damage to a tire lock during the earlier Formula 3 race.

Q1 – Tsunoda Falls early

Nicholas Latifi led the way when the lights turned green, followed by the two of them Uralkali Haas F1 Team Cars follow ahead of George Russell.

Valtteri Bottas set the early pace ahead of Max Verstappen and Hamilton; Pierre Gasly made it into the top three while Daniel Ricciardo looked like he was finally settling into the McLaren.

When the clock counted down, there was a traffic jam in which Kimi Raikkonen, Lance Stroll, Latifi and Nikita Mazepin were in danger of getting out of the meeting with Antonio Giovinazzi and Sebastien Vettel.

After qualifying at Turn 14, Lando Norris was faced with a post-qualifying examination. This didn’t slow him down as he shot into first place in the final minutes.

Yuki Tsunoda was the surprising omission at the end of the first quarter. The Japanese driver missed the second quarter by just 0.007 seconds Antonio Giovinazzi who finished the first quarter in fifteenth place. Tsunoda starts on the sixteenth. Kimi Raikkonen couldn’t repeat his good form from morning practice on the 17th.

Mick Schumacher This year his teammate was overqualified for the fourth time. He will start in eighteenth place with his team-mate Nikita Mazepin from the twentieth.

Nicholas latifi ongoing damage to his wing mirror after driving over the curbs on his lap. He will start the race in ninth place.

Q2 – Aston Martin Duo out

As the second part of qualifying began, George Russell could be heard on the radio that the weather had changed and the wind was stronger, which affected the car’s handling and made it difficult to drive.

Mercedes quickly got both drivers on the track, and Hamilton set the bar before team-mate Bottas drove two tenths of a second faster.

After the duo Silver Arrow set out their intentions early on, it wasn’t long before Verstappen ruined the party and set a time that was half a second faster.

After the teams did bank laps, Russell set off to set a time that was only enough for fourteenth place. With a time slower than its Q1 time, the Williams appeared to be struggling with the stormy conditions.

Both Aston Martin Cognizant Formula 1 team The drivers were turned off in the second quarter. The team is struggling this year and sees no signs of improvement anytime soon. Lance Stroll will start in eleventh place after Ricciardo knocked him out in the last moments of the session. Teammate Sebastian Vettel finished the day in thirteenth place.

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda showed so promising in practice but couldn’t repeat the pace in qualifying. Pierre Gasly will begin in the twelfth.

Giovinazzi did better than his teammate in the second quarter but couldn’t get any further. He will start fourteenth. Saturday mr George Russell couldn’t make it to the third quarter and had to be content with the fifteenth.

Q3 – One hundred not for Hamilton

Norris ran a set of used soft tires first, followed by the two Ferraris. The McLaren driver set a time of 1: 18010 to be the fastest for a short time before Leclerc improved in the last sector and went three-tenths faster.

Sergio Perez spun on his first lap, dropping his bike on the curb, and making contact with the gravel. Hamilton got through the incident before the yellow flags went out and set a time of 1: 16.741 to be the fastest, followed by Verstappen, who was 0.036 seconds slower.

Bottas was fighting for the front row, only a tenth behind Verstappen. An impressive performance from Esteban Ocon put him in fourth place ahead of Sainz, Ricciardo, Leclerc, Norris and Alonso. At this point, Pérez had yet to set a time after returning to the pits after his previous spin.

Despite a late spike in track action, Hamilton took pole position over Verstappen, with neither driver improving on their earlier times.

Valtteri Bottas was left to be content with third place next to Charles Leclerc who goes from strength to strength every week and reaches its highest starting position of the season.

Esteban Ocon had a spectacular qualifying and starts from fifth place, while Sainz starts next door in sixth place.

Daniel Ricciardo Overqualified McLaren F1 team-mate Norris was in qualifying for the third time this year. Ricciardo starts in seventh and Norris in ninth.

Pérez managed to set a time good enough for eighth place after his previous spin, while Fernando Alonso rounded off the top ten in his home race.

Qualifying results