Lewis Hamilton secured pole position, the 63th of his F1 career, for Sunday afternoon's Spanish Grand Prix after topping all three qualifying sessions here at the Circuit de Catalunya. The triple world champion has been on form all weekend, as if he is trying to make up for his dismal outing in Russia two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel denied Mercedes a front row lock out by finishing the session in p2 after his Ferrari team fitted a new power unit to his SF70. The German driver was faster than Valtteri Bottas, who was forced to revert back to his old power unti after problems with the new one.
“We were delighted to see Lewis claim pole after a great first lap in Q3 - we had hoped for more on the second run but, in the end, he landed a few hundredths shy of his previous time,” explained Mercedes man James Allison. “But it got the job done and that's what counts. "
"For Valtteri, it was a highly creditable performance after his practice session this morning was disturbed by problems with the car. We did some good work on race set-up during Friday's practice sessions and are now looking forward to starting from P1 and P3 on the grid. We know already it will be a very tight race but it's one we have every chance of coming home from with a smile on our faces.”
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth overall Followed by the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.
Despite all his problems in practice, Fernando Alonso came through when it mattered the most and qualified in a brilliant seventh place for McLaren Honda. Now all he needs is the reliability to see the race through to its conclusion.
“First of all, I want to say what a superb job Fernando did today in qualifying in front of his enthusiastic home crowd. He had a difficult start to the weekend, but both Fernando and the team worked incredibly hard to overcome this and find the optimal setting for qualifying. P7 was an encouraging result that saw us reach Q3 for the first time this season,” said Honda's Yusuke Hasegawa.
“Adding to Fernando's great work, we were also able to ensure the improvement in our PU with a small update we brought here. However, there's still some distance between us and the top runners and we have to keep pushing hard and improving.”
Sergio Perez, Felipe Massa and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top ten.
