#SpanishGP Qualifying Report: @LewisHamilton beats @ValtteriBottas to pole. #F1

Lewis Hamilton out-paced Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas to claim his 92nd-career pole position in qualifying at the Spanish GP.

 

 

All drivers progressed to the final qualifying stage on the C3 red side-walled soft compounds, so there will be no alternate strategy attempts at the start of Sunday’s Grand Prix.

 

Hamilton held provisional pole in the initial Q3 runs, setting a 1:15.584, which made the Briton 0.059 seconds quicker than his team-mate, despite only getting the fastest final sector time.

 

Bottas attempted his final Q3 flyer in-front of Hamilton, with the Finn managing to edge him out in the first sector, then taking the quickest middle sector time, before fading in the final sector and was unable to improve.

 

Hamilton also did not go faster in his last hot-lap, but his pole was already secured.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen beat Racing Point’s Sergio Perez for third, as the Dutchman too did not improve on his final flying effort, with Perez setting a personal best but still could not out-qualify the Red Bull.

 

The other Racing Point of Lance Stroll was fifth and ahead of Red Bull’s Alexander Albon who qualified sixth and the McLaren duo of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris who were seventh and eighth respectively.

 

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified down in ninth place and in-front of Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who completed the top ten.

 

Gasly’s late improvement eliminated Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel out of the second segment and the German will start in 11th place for the second-consecutive race in a row – the third time this season that Vettel has not made it through to Q3.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat who is currently under investigation for an incident with Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen at turn two in Q1, was 12th in-front of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen scored his best qualifying result in the 2020 campaign so far with 14th as Renault’s Esteban Ocon was 15th and the slowest of the Q2 runners.

 

Ocon improved on his final flyer – all drivers (apart from the two Mercedes and Verstappen), went for a second run, and posted personal best efforts except for Sainz and Leclerc – but it was not enough for the Frenchman.

 

In the first segment, Raikkonen made it into Q2 for the first time in 2020 as the two Ferrari-powered VF-20 Haas racers failed to improve and stop the Alfa Romeo progressing, despite the Finn posting his final flying lap early in the pack of cars pushing for a final improvement in their attempt to make it into the second qualifying stage.

 

Magnussen managed to out-qualify his Haas F1 team-mate Romain Grosjean despite trailing the Frenchman in all practice sessions – with Grosjean taking fifth and sixth in FP1 and FP2 – but his final effort left him 16th and out.

 

Williams Racing’s George Russell failed to make it into the middle segment for the first time since the season-opening Austrian GP, but kept his qualifying 100% record over team-mate Nicholas Latifi as the pairing were 18th and 19th respectively.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi brought up the rear, nearly a second slower than his team-mate Raikkonen with his best time, after running heavily over the kerb at the last corner exit during his penultimate qualifying flyer and asked his team to check the floor of his C39 racer.

Spanish GP Qualifying – The Top Three

 

Pole Position – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+:

Physically it’s so tough, it’s so fast round here. The tyres are what we are really struggling with, when you see us fooling around on the out-laps, we’re trying to keep temperature out of the tyres. I was here until 10PM last night with the guys looking at where we can improve.

 

Second – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+:

 

 

Third – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16:

 

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Aramco Gran Premio De Espana (Spanish Grand Prix 2020 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1050/spain/qualifying.html

 

In today’s earlier FP3 session, it was Hamilton ahead of Mercedes team-mate Bottas, with Red Bull’s Verstappen third, McLaren’s Sainz fourth and Racing Point’s Perez rounding out the top five.

 

In FP2 yesterday afternoon, Hamilton lead from Mercedes team-mate Bottas, with Red Bull’s Verstappen third, Ricciardo taking fourth for Renault and Haas F1 Team’s Grosjean completing the top five.

 

---

#SpanishGP FP1 Report: @ValtteriBottas leads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two. #F1

#Formula1 Aramco Spanish Grand Prix 2020 Preview. #F1 #SpanishGP