Hamilton, Bottas and Vettel split by a tenth in tight session; Alonso 8th for McLaren
Tuesday 11 December 2018 13:54, UK
Lewis Hamilton will start the Spanish GP on pole after edging out Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in a closely-fought qualifying, with Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel third.
Hamilton, the championship leader after his somewhat fortunate win at the last race in Baku, posted a track record 1:16.173, but was only four hundredths of a second faster than Bottas as Mercedes sealed their first front-row lockout of the season.
And Hamilton also ended Vettel's streak, with the German having started on pole at the three previous grands prix.
Hamilton delighted with pole
Ferrari mirrors banned
Vettel finished a tenth behind Hamilton despite an impressive final flying lap on the supposedly slower soft tyre, with Ferrari once again improving in qualifying after flattering to deceive throughout practice.
Kimi Raikkonen, also on the softs, was fourth in the sister Scuderia car.
Red Bull were sitting pretty in second and third after the first runs in Q3 but finished on the third row, with the tantalising prospect of Max Verstappen leading Daniel Ricciardo down to Turn One after their Azerbaijan GP crash.
McLaren, meanwhile, ended their Q3 drought as Fernando Alonso delivered the MCL33 to eighth position - their best qualifying result of the season.
At the first qualifying session of the 'European season' in Barcelona:
* Hamilton sealed pole despite Bottas and Vettel's major improvements on their final flying laps
* Vettel, Raikkonen and Ricciardo posted their fastest Q3 laps on the soft tyre with little difference between that compound and the weekend's 'quickest' tyre, the supersofts
* All of the top six will start the race on the softs after posting their best Q2 times on that tyre
* Alonso made the most of McLaren's upgraded MCL33 by breaking their Q3 duck, finishing eighth, with Kevin Magnussen also impressing for Haas
* Charles Leclerc made Q2 for the second race in a row for Sauber, beating Sergio Perez in the process
* Williams set the slowest times in qualifying as their woeful spell continued, while Lance Stroll crashed for the third time this weekend
Lewis delighted with much-needed pole
"We are back," exclaimed Mercedes director Niki Lauda, after the world champions ended their longest pole drought of the hybrid era on Saturday.
But with Ferrari so close behind on a track expected to suit Mercedes' package, this was another indication that the F1 2018 battle is fiercer than ever.
Hamilton, meanwhile, may be leading Vettel in the drivers' standings by four points but that isn't a true reflection of his drives so far this season, with the reigning world champion admitting he and his car have failed to "sync up".
He was back on form here, securing his first pole since the season-opener in Australia.
Particularly through the first runs in Q3, Hamilton was pumping in purple sectors which no other driver could get close to.
"I needed this pole," the Englishman admitted.
But that is not to say he isn't expecting a tough race on Sunday.
Hamilton admitted a determined Bottas was driving "exceptionally well" and, following his tyre blow-up in Baku, the Finn will surely be as motivated as ever to beat his team-mate off the line into Turn One.
And so will Vettel.
The Ferrari driver, who insisted he was pleased with his team's call to place him onto the 'harder' soft tyres in Q3, said: "I'm not entirely happy with my lap but I think tomorrow will be a close race."
Red Bull also shouldn't be discounted as Verstappen and Ricciardo, split by just two thousandths of a second in qualifying, displayed the most consistent race pace through practice.
Alonso delights home crowd, Williams woes continue
After four disappointing qualifying sessions to start F1 2018, McLaren were optimistic about their chances of making Q3 in Spain after bringing their first major upgrade - insisting we would now see their "real" car.
And there aren't many drivers who would extract more out of an upgraded package than Alonso.
The Spaniard, at his home race, kept up his 100 per cent qualifying record over Stoffel Vandoorne and though he admitted the top six were "in another league", he was delighted to enter his first final shootout of the campaign.
"We definitely made a step forward at this race," Alonso told Sky F1. "Everything that we bring to the track is delivering the expectations and the lap times that we were expecting from them.
"From now on we need to push the development and bring new parts every single race."
It was Magnussen who was best of the rest, however, with Haas picking up where they left of from pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Carlos Sainz will also be happy to have got a qualifying chip off his shoulder by beating Nico Hulkenberg for the first time this year with his Renault team-mate, hampered by a fuel pressure problem, knocked out in Q1.
Leclerc shone once again for Sauber while Pierre Gasly did well to seal 12th for Toro Rosso - particularly as team-mate Brendon Hartley couldn't set a time at all after his heavy Practice Three crash.
Williams' problems, however, continue. This is arguably the illustrious Grove team's most difficult run in recent years and they followed up their 19th-20th in every practice session with the two slowest times.
Sergey Sirotkin chose to remain positive about the team's hopes but Stroll, who spun into the gravel for the third time this weekend at the end of Q1, was understandably downbeat.
