» Hamilton beats Rosberg to pole in Spain

Lewis Hamilton has stormed to pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix, edging ahead of Nico Rosberg. Australian Daniel Ricciardo got the better of his new Red Bull Racing teammate Max Verstappen as the pair qualified in third and fourth position respectively.

The Mercedes pair traded punches throughout the entire qualifying session, as both drivers took turns occupying provisional pole.

The result seemed bleak for Hamilton at the beginning of Q3, when he locked his front tyres, costing him around eight-tenths of a second. This gave the advantage to Rosberg who capitalised on the Englishman’s mistake, snatching provisional pole ahead of a thrilling Verstappen.

However, on Hamilton’s final lap he pulled the cat out of the bag, registering a 1:22.000 to secure his third pole position this season.

Verstappen was threatening Ricciardo by outpacing the Australian in the first two sessions of qualifying, however it was Ricciardo who called on experience to put in a stonking lap to qualify in third position on his second run.

While Red Bull Racing was fighting with Mercedes, Ferrari seemed to get lost as both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen qualified over a second off the pace, having been within arm’s reach during the practice sessions.

Räikkönen qualified fifth fastest, 1.1 seconds off Hamilton’s benchmark, while Vettel was a further 0.2 seconds behind his teammate in sixth.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas beat Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso to seventh position by one-tenth of a second, while Force India’s Sergio Pérez was two-tenths faster than crowd favourite Fernando Alonso, was ninth-fastest.

Alonso made history at his home Grand Prix as he put his McLaren-Honda into Q3 for the first time since Honda’s return to Formula 1. His teammate Jenson Button was on course to also make the cut until he was edged out in the final moments of Q2.

Daniil Kvyat failed to join his teammate Sainz in the top-ten shootout. He will line up behind Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Jenson Button, who locked out the sixth row of the grid.

Williams left it late in the session to join the action on the track in Q1, which proved costly for Felipe Massa as he failed to make it to Q2 after aborting his final flying lap due to the team misjudging the time to send him out to the track. This sees the Brazilian lining up behind Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, who was just pipped at the end of Q1 by Button, in eighteenth position.

Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean finished in fourteenth ahead of Kevin Magnussen and his teammate Esteban Gutiérrez as the American team continues to search for a solution to their handling issues.

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA PIRELLI 2016 – QUALIFYING RESULTS
	Q3 Qualifiers	Team / Entry	Result	Gap
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W07 Hybrid	1:22.000
2.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W07 Hybrid	1:22.280	+ 0.280
3.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB12	1:22.680	+ 0.680
4.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB12	1:23.087	+ 1.087
5.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF16-H	1:23.113	+ 1.113
6.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF16-H	1:23.334	+ 1.334
7.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW38	1:23.522	+ 1.522
8.	Carlos Sainz Jr	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR11	1:23.643	+ 1.643
9.	Sergio Pérez	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM09	1:23.782	+ 1.782
10.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	1:23.981	+ 1.981
	Q2 Qualifiers	Team / Entry	Result	Gap**
11.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM09	1:24.203	+ 2.044
12.	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	1:24.348	+ 2.189
13.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR11	1:24.445	+ 2.286
14.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Ferrari VF-16	1:24.480	+ 2.321
15.	Kevin Magnussen	Renault Sport F1 Team RS16	1:24.625	+ 2.466
16.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas F1 Ferrari VF-16	1:24.778	+ 2.619
	Q1 Qualifiers	Team / Entry	Result	Gap*
17.	Jolyon Palmer	Renault Sport F1 Team RS16	1:24.903	+ 1.901
18.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW38	1:24.941	+ 1.939
19.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C35	1:25.202	+ 2.200
20.	Felipe Nasr	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C35	1:25.579	+ 2.577
21.	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing Mercedes MRT5	1:25.745	+ 2.743
22.	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing Mercedes MRT5	1:25.939	+ 2.937