Hamilton 'needed' Barcelona pole

Lewis Hamilton was in no doubt as to the crucial nature of his pole position for the Spanish grand Prix, having snapped Sebastian Vettel's run of Ferrari dominance in qualifying. Hamilton pipped team-mate Valtteri Bottas by four hundredths of a second to lead the first Mercedes front-row lockout of 2018.

The Silver Arrows have looked back to something approaching their best at the Circuit de Catalunya and the dominance of front-row starters in this race historically will give Hamilton hope of extending his lead over Vettel atop the drivers' standings.

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Vettel had led the way in Q1 and Q2, lowering the lap record that he had set here in pre-season testing, but Hamilton came alive in Q3 to blast around the track in one minute 16.173 seconds.

After three off-colour performances, including his unlikely win in Baku, Hamilton was delighted to be back in familiar territory in Barcelona.

The championship leader takes his second pole of 2018 ????

Will he be able to extend his lead in the standings tomorrow? ????#SpanishGP ???????? #F1 pic.twitter.com/9Ee9Na6oHY — Formula 1 (@F1) May 12, 2018

"I needed this pole," he said. "I haven't had a pole for a while. It's a Mercedes one-two!"

Bottas was robbed of victory in Azerbaijan after suffering a puncture in the closing stages and he was once again gutted to narrowly miss out on the top spot to his team-mate.

"It was so close today, like it has been all week," he said.

"I ruined my first run in Q3 so I really only had one chance. It is a shame it is only four hundredths but it is good for the team.

"We will race hard tomorrow and try and get the one two we deserved in Baku."