#SpanishGP Qualifying: @LewisHamilton clinches 100th-career pole position. #F1

Lewis Hamilton has clinched his 100th-career pole in qualifying at the Spanish GP, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Both Silver Arrows along with Verstappen and runners who progressed into the third qualifying segment, will start the Spanish Grand Prix of the C3 red side-walled softer tyres.

Hamilton lead the time-sheets at the end of the initial Q3 hot laps posting a 1:16.741, with Verstappen narrowly 0.036 seconds behind the Briton.

None of the top three could improve on their final flying laps, with Hamilton dropping from a personal best first sector to end up behind at the end – particularly losing a bit of time sliding his F1 W12 wide and onto the big kerb at the exit of the penultimate corner of the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya.

This gave Verstappen the chance to move ahead, but the Dutchman was unable to improve on his best times in all three sectors, along with Bottas.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc posted a personal best effort on his final hot lap to claim fourth place on the grid in-front of Esteban Ocon and team-mate Carlos Sainz, who had beaten Leclerc in both Q1 and Q2.

McLaren F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo charged back from his shock Q1 elimination at last weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix to take seventh place, and beat Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez, who spun his Honda-powered RB16B racer heading towards the downhill turn 13 right-hander ahead of the last chicane on his opening Q3 flyer.

Perez dipped his left-side wheels into the gravel and took a violent spin as a result, but the Mexican was able to get out of the danger spot before Hamilton, who was running behind the Red Bull on course to post what his his 100th-career pole position, went through.

McLaren’s Lando Norris ended qualifying in ninth place ahead of Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso who starts tenth.

In the middle segment, Ricciardo’s improvement on his last hot lap – which included the session’s best first sector time- eliminated Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and the Canadian starts 11th.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly looked impressive in Q1 but was knocked out in the second stage for the first time this season, just finishing ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who was unable to post a personal best effort with his final flying lap and wound up 13th.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi beat WIlliams Racing’s George Russell to 14th place on the grid after the duo escaped Q1 for the second time in succession.

Russell was running out of sequence with the rest who progressed into the second qualifying stage, posting his best effort ahead of the final hot laps in what was a sole flyer that was majorly off the pace in the halfway part of the session.

Giovinazzi took a sighting lap on the medium rubber in the early stages of Q2, then the Italian improved when on the softer compounds for his final flyer in the middle stage’s final moments to comfortably slot in-front of Russell.

In Q1, there were big moments including traffic backing up ahead of their hot laps, one of which, was Norris who was coming to finish his flying lap and caught three cars travelling slowly at the last chicane, with another two slowing out of sequence, and is currently being investigated by the stewards.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was the shock elimination of the first qualifying stage, after the Japanese driver pushed on during his warm up lap to overtake Leclerc and lead the pack.

He posted a personal best on his final flyer, as did all the other eliminatees in Q1, but Tsunoda was relegated down the order as his rivals improved, with Russell completing his final hot lap to edge out the AlphaTauri driver at the last moment.

Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen was 17th and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher, who claimed his best F1 qualifying position of 18th place (the German also done the same during qualifying at Imola, after Tsunoda crashed out at the beginning of Q1).

WIlliams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi ended up behind Schumacher after damaging his FW43B racer running over the kerbs at the exit of Campsa halfway through the first segment of qualifying – an incident that also saw the Williams have it’s left-hand front mirror smashed.

Uralkali Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin finished at the rear.

Spanish GP Qualifying – The Top Three

Pole Position – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12:

“I made some changes for qualifying, we’re always trying to make the car better but it’s a bit of a gamble, to think about [set up for] the race as well. It was my call in the end, but that’s why I was behind all the way in qualifying. I was making small tweaks, the first lap wasn’t the best but just wow. I can’t believe we’re at 100 [poles]. The men and women at the factory, they are continuously raising the bar.”

2nd Place – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B:

“Both runs were decent, the second run was very gusty. We are working very hard to beat them here, so second, I can be happy with that. I need to make sure to have a good start – the pace is there so we should have a good race as well.”

3rd Place – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W12:

“I think the first runs in Q2 were faster runs. I lost a tenth or two in Turn 10 which was marginal for the pole. I think it’s going to be very close between us and the Red Bulls…”

You can see the full Formula 1 Aramco Gran Premio De Espana 2021 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1086/spain/qualifying.html

In the earlier FP3 session, Verstappen was quickest ahead of Hamilton, the two Ferrari’s of Leclerc and Sainz who were third and fourth respectively and Bottas completing the top five. You can see the full classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1086/spain/practice-3.html

@LewisHamilton leads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two in #SpanishGP FP2. #F1

@ValtteriBottas leads @Max33Verstappen in #SpanishGP FP1 session. #F1

Formula 1 @Aramco #SpanishGP 2021 Preview. #F1 @Circuitcat_eng