Lewis Hamilton clinched pole by just 0.06s from teammate Valtteri Bottas as Mercedes swept the front row for the Spanish Grand Prix.
In the last race before ‘party modes’ are banned, the one-lap pace of the Brackley-based team was in another league from the rest of the field as the all-black Silver Arrows finished seven-tenths clear of Max Verstappen in third.
Q1
At the front, Lewis Hamilton was fastest as Sergio Perez but himself between the world champion and Verstappen in third with Bottas fourth.
In the battle to avoid elimination though, Kimi Raikkonen gave Alfa Romeo a boost from just making it through in 15th.
He would beat the two Haas’, as Romain Grosjean’s P5 pace from practice on Friday wasn’t sustained and in fact, the Frenchman fell behind teammate Kevin Magnussen in 17th.
George Russell wasn’t able to make it a fourth straight Q2 appearance in 18th, but was four-tenths clear of Williams partner Nicholas Latifi in 19th.
Antonio Giovinazzi brought up the field in 10th in the second Alfa.
Q2
Contrary to last weekend, all drivers opted for the soft compound to start Sunday’s race and it was Mercedes who continued the theme from practice by holding a half-second lead over Verstappen in third.
A big surprise was Pierre Gasly jumping up to fifth fastest in the dying moments for AlphaTauri.
This meant Sebastian Vettel just missed out on Q3 by 0.002s in P11 despite a stronger weekend with only two-tenths between himself and Charles Leclerc.
Daniil Kvyat couldn’t match his teammate in 12th. While the two Renaults were a big disappointment with Daniel Ricciardo 13th and Esteban Ocon 15th, either side of Raikkonen in 14th.
Q3
The first run saw Hamilton claim the early advantage by just 0.06s over Bottas, as the party modes, which will be gone from Spa, saw Mercedes gain half a second in lap time from Q2.
Verstappen had no response in third, just keeping the two Racing Points out of reach as they too unleashed the Mercedes power in Q3.
Faced with one last attempt to improve their positions, no driver would gain time on their final run, leaving the world champion in pole for the 92nd time in F1 ahead of Bottas.
Verstappen will be hoping for a repeat of last weekend on race day from third, as Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll reasserted Racing Point as the third best team in fourth and fifth.
Alex Albon had a better qualifying in sixth, leading the two McLarens and Charles Leclerc, as all four drivers set lap times in the 1m17.0s
Despite his great lap to make Q3, Gasly would utlimately do no better than P10 in the end for AlphaTauri.
Full results from qualifying can be seen below:
