Hamilton leads Mercedes fightback

Hamilton leads Mercedes fightback with Barcelona pole

Saturday 12 May 2018 16:02

Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes front-row lockout at the Spanish Grand Prix, snapping Sebastian Vettel's run of Saturday dominance. Ferrari's attempt to go faster on harder compound tyres ultimately fell flat as Valtteri Bottas joined Hamilton on the front row, with Vettel set to start second.

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Hamilton matched his 2017 efforts at the Circuit de Catalunya, smashing the lap record on his way to pole position, but the Silver Arrows' sluggish start to the season paints this triumph in a different light.

A time of one minute 16.173 seconds helped Hamilton to his 74th career pole position, with Bottas just four hundredths off the pace, with Mercedes fighting back after playing second fiddle to Ferrari in the past three races.

The three leading teams will line up alongside each other for race day, with Kimi Raikkonen alongside Vettel on the second row and Max Verstappen edging out Daniel Ricciardo for fifth place.

Ricciardo's decision to bolt on soft tyres at the end of Q3 added a layer of intrigue as he set the fastest time in the final sector, and Ferrari followed suit to suggest conventional wisdom could be tipped on its head.

However, Hamilton was able to lower his time even further on supersofts to hold off Vettel by a tenth and break the lap record that the German had set here in pre-season testing, as well as the opening two sessions, which he had topped.

The top six will all start the race on the more durable soft tyre, suggesting the end of the race could once again be frantic after the madness that helped Hamilton stroll to a highly unlikely victory in Azerbaijan last time out.

Behind them, the midfield battle looks as fierce as ever. Fernando Alonso will start eighth after McLaren made Q3 for the first time this season, backing up their raft of upgrades, but Kevin Magnussen helped Haas to 'best of the rest' status, and he will start seventh.

#SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/qn1su1XQHD — GP Fans Global (@GPFansGlobal) May 12, 2018

PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION
1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:16.498	2. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) - +0.040
3. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) - +0.132	4. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - +0.439
5. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - +0.643	6. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) - +0.645
7. Kevin Magnussen (Haas) - +1.503	8. Fernando Alonso (McLaren) - +1.548
9. Carlos Sainz Jr (Renault) - +1.617	10. Romain Grosjean (Haas) - +1.662
11. Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) - 1:18.323	12. Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso) - 1:18.463
13. Esteban Ocon (Force India) - 1:18.696	14. Charles Leclerc (Sauber) - 1:18.910
15. Sergio Perez (Force India) - 1:19.098	16. Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) - 1:18.923
17. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) - 1:19.493	18. Sergey Sirotkin (Williams) - 1:19.695
19. Lance Stroll (Williams) - 1:20.225	20. Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso) - NO TIME

After a podium in Baku, Force India wre brought down to earth with a bump as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon went out in Q2. Stoffel Vandoorne joined them, he is the only remaining driver not to outqualify his team-mate in a single race this year.

Brendon Hartley was absent from qualifying after demolishing his Toro Rosso in practice. Nico Hulkenberg had to bail out of a flying lap as his Renault struggled with a fuel pressure problem and he could not make it through with a last-gasp dash. Lance Stroll spun into the gravel to end the session as Williams' miserable weekend drags on.