Lewis Hamilton proved Mercedes' pace in qualifying was no fluke as he claimed a comfortable victory at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.

The world champion had no real competition throughout the 66 laps in Barcelona, eventually crossing the finish line over 20 seconds clear of Valtteri Bottas as Mercedes claimed an emphatic 1-2.

For Sebastian Vettel, it was another race where the chance of a strong result was missed as a decision to pit for a second time during a mid-race Virtual Safety Car dropped him from second to fourth, where he would ultimately finish.

That allowed Max Verstappen to claim his first podium of the season in third, despite having to nurse a damaged car over the final 20 laps or so after just touching the back of Lance Stroll's Williams when the VSC ended.

In a largely processional race, the main action came at the start as Vettel jumped Bottas into second at the first two corners.

There would be carnage behind, as Romain Grosjean lost the rear of his Haas through Turn 3 causing a huge plume of tyre smoke, unable to properly judge where the Haas was, Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg both collided with the Frenchman, taking all three drivers out.

A prolonged Safety Car period was needed to clear away the debris but once the race was green again, Hamilton's pace was unmatched as he pulled away by half a second per lap at least over Vettel in second.

The Ferrari driver tried to respond by pitting first and switching to the Medium tyre, hoping it would cause a reaction from Mercedes, but it would have little effect as instead, his main focus was on keeping Bottas behind in third but the Mercedes driver was unable to mount a serious challenge.

The two Red Bulls once again found themselves unable to show their true pace in the first stint, as both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo ran behind Kimi Raikkonen, but when the Finn was forced to retire with an engine issue, both drivers pushed and hoped by running to a definitive one-stop strategy it would bring them into play.

Indeed, the only time Hamilton lost the lead was when he pitted for new tyres, running second behind Verstappen for a small number of laps.

Once the Dutchman had pitted though, it was a cruise to the checkered flag, even when the VSC was called to clear the broken down Force India of Esteban Ocon.

This is where Ferrari made what would turn out to be the wrong decision to pit Vettel for a second time, as a slow stop meant he came out fourth behind Verstappen.

Minor contact between the Dutchman and Lance Stroll, which resulted in front wing damage, seemed to offer the German hope of getting back on the podium.

However, able to adjust to the loss of downforce, the Red Bull driver was able to main enough of an advantage to go on and claim his first podium of the season.

Daniel Ricciardo has a bizarre race setting regular fastest laps but ended over 23 seconds behind his teammate after spinning under the VSC in fifth.

Kevin Magnussen also had a lonely race in sixth to finish as top midfield runner as Carlos Sainz got ahead of compatriot Fernando Alonso at the start and would claim seventh.

The McLaren driver would be stuck behind Charles Leclerc for a prolonged period in what was another strong performance from the F2 champion, but eventually, the local hero got past on the main straight en route to P8.

Sergio Perez would also pass the Monegasque late on for ninth but Leclerc would secure a second consecutive points finish in 10th for Sauber.

14 cars would make the finish with Stoffel Vandoorne the final retiree as the gearbox on his McLaren appeared to fail as he came onto the start/ finish straight.

Sebastian Vettel conceded there was nothing he could do to match the pace of Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes after the world champion claimed pole position for the Spanish GP.

The Briton would be back to his best as he found time on both his runs in the all-important top 10 shoot-out eventually finishing just four-hundredths clear of teammate Valtteri Bottas, with Vettel a tenth-and-a-half slower in third.

However, the German doesn't see Mercedes returning to the front as a big concern.

“Looking back you have to admit that the last two qualifying sessions, they lost something," he claimed. “If they got that back it doesn’t necessarily mean that they found something, it’s just that they were back to normal.

“I think we need to admit that they were just a bit quicker today. For tomorrow though I think we should be in the mix.”

Tyres were the important factor, with both Ferrari drivers and Daniel Ricciardo setting their best time on the Soft compound while Hamilton was able to get a full lap of performance from the Supersoft.

“It was straightforward [to go back to Softs] because I had such a good feeling in Q2,” he added.

“I asked and we decided to go back to the Softs and I think that was the right call. The lap was good. Maybe there was a tiny bit but not enough to get to the first row.

"On the first Supersoft lap, it just didn’t happen. I locked up into Turn 1 and I never got the grip that I was looking for.”

As for Hamilton, after taking his career tally to 74 poles on Saturday, he admitted this was possibly one of the most "important".

“I needed that pole,” he said with a sigh of relief. "I’ve not had a pole for a while. It was very close but I’m very happy.”

“It’s important for me to get back into a good position in qualifying, it’s usually a strength of mine.”

Motorsport boss Toto Wolff has vehemently denied suggestions Mercedes forced through a controversial tweak to the tyres for the Spanish Grand Prix.

After pre-season testing at the same Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya track, Pirelli agreed it would use a thinner tread on the tyres at races where the venue had been newly resurfaced, with Spain, Silverstone and Paul Ricard in France all coming under that category.

That was after several teams, but most notably Mercedes, struggled with severe blistering which sees the compound literally explode from overheating which can lead to punctures in extreme cases.

The thinner tread prevents that and it has worked with no such problems this weekend but the coincidence between that change and the German manufacturer all of a sudden now back fastest on the grid isn't lost on many.

“Is bollocks a bad word in English?” Wolff told Motorsport.com when asked if Mercedes had been the main parties pushing for the change.

“Rubbish. All teams had blistering, very heavy blistering at the test in Barcelona. Red Bull, Ferrari, ourselves. McLaren have seen it I think also. The tyres wouldn’t have lasted in the race.

“So, I don’t know where suddenly this rumour comes out that we have been influencing Pirelli and the FIA to change any tyres."

The Austrian also insisted his team would not resort to such tactics to try and overcome an issue.

“When we haven’t performed well in the past we have taken ourselves by the nose and have looked for performance to be found on our car, not go on the default mode, turn around and say ‘what are the others doing that is wrong?'” he claimed.

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However, Sebastian Vettel, who earlier conceded Mercedes had been the faster car in Saturday's qualifying session, later seemed to lay the blame on the tyres for the turnaround in their pace.

"I think it's pretty straightforward, the tyres are different. They're different for everyone so everyone needs to cope with that," he was quoted by ESPN.

"I think it was exceptional that Mercedes was struggling in the last events as much as they were but thinner thread, basically the tyres are harder so we still have the same tyres if you look at the colours but they're harder than they're used to be. As I said, it's the same for all of us."

Lewis Hamilton produced another remarkable qualifying performance to take his second pole of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday.

The Mercedes driver would improve on each of his laps in the important Q3 segment setting a new track record of 1m17.173s on the Supersoft tyre to end the three-race steak of Sebastian Vettel.

Valtteri Bottas almost emerged late on to spoil the party but the Finn would fall four-hundredths shy of his world champion teammate as Mercedes secured their first front row lockout of the year. 

After hiding their pace throughout practice, Ferrari unsurprisingly turned up the wick and were much more competitive when the action got serious in qualifying.

For their strong pace in the first two segments, however, their drivers struggled initially in Q3 with Vettel fifth and Kimi Raikkonen only seventh.

Both would switch to the Soft compound tyre for their second attempts, believing it offered better grip throughout the lap, and so it proved with the German moving up to third and the 2007 champion just behind in fourth.

That meant the demotion of the two Red Bull drivers as once again the lack of a special engine mode for a boost in performance over a single lap would hurt them massively.

Max Verstappen would be just 0.002s faster than Daniel Ricciardo in fifth and sixth respectively but ultimately, the RB14's would be over six-tenths slower than Hamilton's pole time, one of the biggest margins all year.

Haas proved they have made good progress with the Barcelona upgrades as Kevin Magnussen inserted himself as the lead midfield runner in seventh and Romain Grosjean also featured inside the top 10 in P10.

The two home favourites, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, gave the Spanish crowd something to cheer by taking the remaining Q3 positions in eighth and ninth.

Alonso's result marked the first time a McLaren has made the top 10 all season, while the Renault driver maintained his record of outqualifying his teammate every year at his home GP.

The second McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne will hope to use his free tyre choice to make progress into the points from 11th as will Pierre Gasly who produced a strong lap in 12th for Toro Rosso.

Also impressive was Charles Leclerc, fresh from scoring his first F1 points in Baku two weeks ago, with the Monegasque 14th for Sauber.

He was the meat in a Force India sandwich as Esteban Ocon claimed 13th and teammate Sergio Perez struggling in P15.

Nico Hulkenberg was a surprise victim in Q1 as a fuel pressure problem left the German scrambling to set a time. He would get out on track, but improvements from others saw the Renault driver only 16th fastest.

Marcus Ericsson was a lowly 17th in the second Sauber, some six-tenths slower than teammate Leclerc, but the Swede wasn't helped by a late crash for Lance Stroll at Turn 12 bringing out the yellow flags in the closing moments.

The Canadian was behind his teammate Sergey Sirotkin as the two Williams' once again brought up the timesheet but a three-place grid penalty for the Russian will see him drop back.

Brendon Hartley suffered a big accident in final practice in the morning, spinning off at the near-flat out Campsa corner at around 160mph. The rear of his Toro Rosso would fall off as it was being recovered and unsurprisingly it was too badly damaged to be fixed in time for qualifying, meaning the Kiwi will start last.

Brendon Hartley believes his high-speed crash in final practice at the Spanish GP was probably the biggest he has had during his racing career.

The Toro Rosso driver touched the grass on the entry to the near flat-out Campsa corner instantly spinning and slamming rear-first into the barrier causing major damage.

Indeed, the whole rear assembly would collapse when marshals attempted to clear it away and unsurprisingly, there was no chance Hartley would be able to compete in qualifying.

“Such a big impact like that, it’s potentially the biggest impact I’ve had,” the Kiwi said via Motorsport.com. “I actually don’t remember, and that’s not because I just had an impact.

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“[This crash] was definitely the biggest accident I’ve had in a long time. It happens in slow motion. I was going backwards towards the wall, so you don’t really know when the impact is going to come.

“I’m looking in my mirror to know exactly when it was going to come. You brace yourself a bit, but it’s never a lot of fun.”

Medics immediately cleared Hartley for the race, with any impact over 30G requiring a medical check-up and the stewards will give permission for him to start last, providing his car meets the necessary standard.

Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari will remain the team to beat after hiding their pace during Friday practice at the Spanish GP.

The Mercedes' led the way in Barcelona with Valtteri Bottas setting the fastest time of the day in the morning and the world champion topping the standings in the afternoon.

By contrast, the Scuderia, who were trialling out new Halo-mounted mirrors as part of their upgrades, sat as the third-best team behind Red Bull and would even suffer an engine problem with Kimi Raikkonen, requiring a precautionary change.

“I think it’s still very close,” Hamilton said. “Not really quite sure where Ferrari’s pace was today, but they’re probably sandbagging or something. They’ll bring it out tomorrow.

“The Red Bull’s obviously very close to my pace, so I think, again, it’s going to be relatively close between the top three teams.

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“I can’t really tell you which one’s quickest at the moment – because again, fuelling [levels], and maybe one didn’t get their lap or something like that. Tomorrow we’ll get a much better understanding.”

Vettel's comments also seemed to keep the Italian team's cards close to their chest as he declared himself satisfied with the day's running.

“We could end up in P1 or P6,” he said. “Today I think was okay. The car balance was good.

“I think we can improve and I know there is a little bit more in the car, and a little bit more in me.”

On the controversial new mirrors, the four-time world champion also rejected aerodynamic benefit was the main reason for the change in location, which some sources believe could be the reason used by the FIA to deem the design illegal.

Fernando Alonso expressed his disappointment at the inability of McLaren to close the gap to Formula 1's top three teams after qualifying for the Spanish GP.

The Spaniard was able to secure the British team's first appearance in Q3 this season at his home race in Barcelona, eventually claiming P8 and just fractions behind the best midfield car, Kevin Magnussen's Haas.

However, his lap time was still 1.5 seconds slower than the pole time set by Lewis Hamilton with almost a one-second deficit to the two Red Bulls, both of whom use the same Renault engine.

“I am happy with that, P8 is a good position. Probably the downside of this is still the gap. The top six are in another league," he told Sky Sports.

What makes the large deficit even more frustrating is Alonso's satisfaction with the performance of a substantial upgrade for the Spanish race, which it was hoped would see the gap reduced.

“[I’m] definitely happy with the step forward for this race," the 36-year-old said. "Everything we brought to the track has delivered on its expectation. We just need more new parts as soon as possible.”

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Still, the double world champion hopes to use McLaren's usually more competitive race pace to produce a strong result in front of his home crowd.

“I recover on average six places on the Grand Prix, so with that tomorrow, who knows,” Alonso said with a smile.

“Hopefully I will put on a good show for the fans tomorrow. It is important to put on a good show.”

Max Verstappen has concern Red Bull's ongoing power deficit to Mercedes and Ferrari could be the deciding factor at this weekend's Spanish GP.

The Milton Keynes outfit had both cars in second and third behind Lewis Hamilton in second practice while the Briton's teammate Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time on Friday in the morning session.

As is usually the case in Barcelona, the technical final sector is where the RB14 is particularly strong but the Dutchman thinks the time lost in the first two sectors could be too much to make up.

“It’s hard to overtake here so we need to be competitive in qualifying. We know that in qualifying they will turn up their engines," he said on Friday.

“Turn 3 is easy flat and Turn 9 is also flat so that becomes a straight and then we will lose even more in terms of engine speed.

“It’s a bit of a shame but we can improve our car for the final sector and we need to play to our strengths."

This weekend Red Bull have brought a raft of upgrades, reportedly worth around half a second, and the 20-year-old was satisfied they were working though did concede "we always want more".

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As for teammate Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian was left to recover from a rare off in the morning as he slid off the track at Turn 4 and gently hit the barrier.

“It is a bad corner to have a tailwind so it makes it tricky. It caught me out this morning," he explained.

“There were a few of us making errors for sure. Unfortunately, mine was costly enough to miss the last hour of that session.”

The race winner in China two races ago also questioned Pirelli's decision to bring the Supersoft tyre to the Spanish race, despite Red Bull looking one of the stronger teams on that compound.

Both Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo vented their frustration at once again seeing Red Bull's lack of power prevent them from challenging for pole at the Spanish GP.

The two drivers sat second and third after the first runs of Q3 in qualifying but both Mercedes' and both Ferraris would find big chunks of time on their second effort while only Ricciardo would find a few extra thousandths.

With the eventual gap sitting at six-tenths to pole position, one of the highest it has been all year, Verstappen had absolutely no doubt what was to blame.

“We just don’t have that power mode for Q3,” the Dutchman cried.

“Turn 1 to Turn 4 is flat out so it is even harder for us as we just lose more top speed and from Turn 7 to Turn 10 is also straight now so it’s all a bit more painful for us and it just gets even harder.

“Together with my final lap, I couldn’t continue after Turn 1 as I had a moment there, so the gap is probably a bit bigger than it should be.”

His Australian teammate opted to switch to the Soft compound for his final effort which would move him to within just 0.002s of Max, as they claimed fifth and sixth, and the disappointment was clear when he spoke later.

“I don’t really know what I could have done more with what we had,” Ricciardo said. “With the laps we put in I thought we would only be a couple of tenths from pole, not six or seven.

“It’s a little bit disheartening.”

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• Risk of team orders will hover over Red Bull drivers after Baku clash

After their collision in Baku at the last race, to be starting alongside each other will no doubt create a few nerves on the Red Bull pitwall at the start, with the 28-year-old expecting a stern pre-race warning.

"For sure, I expect [team boss] Christian [Horner] to definitely have a word with us tomorrow before the race," he was quoted by ESPN.

"For the next few races, until things calm down and he sees proof that things have calmed down, he will definitely talk to us.

"We are in a difficult position because we want to not only beat each other but try and attack Kimi [Raikkonen, who starts fourth] or whoever is in front of us," he added.

"Look, we've attacked before and kept it clean, so we just need to do that."

Robert Kubica offered a bleak status report of Williams' pace after making his first appearance at a Formula 1 weekend during first practice at the Spanish GP on Friday.

The Pole would finish 1.2 seconds ahead of regular driver Lance Stroll after the Canadian ended the morning in the gravel trap at Turn 5, however, the two drivers would still bring up the field in 19th and 20th on the timesheet.

With the aim of evaluating the upgrades the British team has brought in a bid to start turning around their season, the former BMW driver admitted their impact was minimal in the blustery conditions in Barcelona.

“It has been a difficult session for us with difficult balance. Some we were expecting but not as bad. It was a bit of a shock for me,” Kubica told Sky Sports F1.

“I think I did what I was asked and I am happy with what I delivered. I know I’m 19th but sometimes you have to realise that there are priorities and although the conditions and car balance was very, very difficult, I managed to drive well.

“Although, I felt embarrassed when I was driving inside the car because it was so difficult and I felt so slow in some places. But we couldn’t do more."

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Just to see the 33-year-old's name back on a timing screen during an official Grand Prix weekend was enough for most, however, but Kubica was quite surprised by how "normal" the experience felt.

“That is a good test for me because you need to understand where is your limits and where is the limit of the car," he explained.

“I was expecting to have bigger emotions. I had much bigger emotions in the past when I was testing for the first time or even in Abu Dhabi.

“Although I’m not driving often, it is becoming natural. For sure it’s nice to be in an official session of a Grand Prix weekend but it would be nicer to continue.”