The battle between the Mercedes drivers heats up with Lewis Hamilton claiming his 35th career pole position in Formula 1 at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The 2008 world champion denied his team-mate Nico Rosberg in the top ten shootout despite the fact Rosberg was quickest in both Q1 and Q2.
And yet Hamilton delivered when it mattered in Q3 to grab the top spot by 0.168 seconds in a tense final-lap duel.
With Mercedes continuing to dominate, the rest were fighting for third and it was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who emerged as best of the rest, even though it was a second off from Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas qualified fourth for Williams, comfortably ahead of Romain Grosjean, who continued the recent upward trend for Lotus E22 with fifth position.
The Ferraris lapped at a similar pace, ending up sixth and seventh with Kimi Raikkonen shading team-mate and crowd favourite Fernando Alonso.
McLaren’s Jenson Button qualified in eighth ahead of Felipe Massa. The latter looking set for a stronger grid position but for a disappointing Q3 lap in the Williams.
Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel will start in tenth after being unable to complete a lap during Q3. His Red Bull RB10 grind to a halt before his run, prompting a red flag.
Nico Hulkenberg was fastest of the drivers to fail to make the top ten shootout. The Force India driver was bumped out of the Q3 slots by Bottas late on, despite being less than a tenth slower than home hero Alonso, who just scraped through.
Sergio Perez qualified in P12 ahead of Daniil Kvyat and Esteban Gutierrez, while Kevin Magnussen is classified as P15 despite not running in Q2 following an engine problem striking his McLaren.
Jean-Eric Vergne was P16 despite not running on track and will drop a further ten places on the grid for shedding a wheel during Friday afternoon practice session.
Adrian Sutil, who complained about a problem with his Sauber over the team radio, was the fastest of those who failed to escape Q1.
He was bumped down to P17 in the last few seconds of the first segment of qualifying by Button, who put on the quicker medium Pirelli in order to ensure he was not knocked out.
Max Chilton was P18, outqualifying his Marussia team-mate Jules Bianchi by six tenths of a second, with Marcus Ericsson doing a good job in the lead Caterham to end up just ahead of Kamui Kobayashi.
As for Pastor Maldonado, the Lotus driver will start last after crashing even before starting his flying lap.
So a great comeback from Lewis Hamilton after being outpaced by Nico Rosberg in the first two segments of qualifying. It’s going to be fascinating contest to see which Mercedes driver will have the advantage in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Qualifying positions, Circuit de Catalunya:
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m25.232s
2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m25.400s
3. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m26.285s
4. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m26.632s
5. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m26.960s
6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m27.104s
7. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m27.140s
8. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m27.335s
9. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m27.402s
10. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m27.685s
11. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m28.002s
12. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m28.039s
13. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m28.280s
14. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes No time
15. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault No time*
16. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1m28.563s
17. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m29.586s
18. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m30.177s
19. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m30.312s
20. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1m30.375s
21. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault No time
22. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault No time**
107 per cent time: 1m32.837s
*Five-pace penalty for gearbox change
**Ten-place penalty for unsafe release
Lewis Hamilton paid tribute to the performance of his Mercedes after taking pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix, saying, he’s never had a car this competitive before.
“Coming here this weekend we obviously didn’t know where everyone was going to be,” said Hamilton after qualifying. “So to see the development that’s gone on and the hard work that’s gone into getting our car ready for this week, it inspires me.”
“So a really big thank you to the team. To have the kind of performance we have, I’ve never really known that before.”
Hamilton was quickest in both of yesterday’s practice sessions but team mate Nico Rosberg ran him close for pole position.
“It’s been a tough day and Nico has been driving really well through P3 and also through qualifying,” said Hamilton, “so I didn’t know whether I’d be able to get it”.
“But right at the end I had to just eke out absolutely everything and more from the car.”
Hamilton said his car was a “nightmare” to drive during Q1. “It’s very difficult out there, the track conditions are pretty poor,” he said. “But I’m overwhelmed, I’m so happy to have had that.”
“I lost a bit of pace today and so really even happier knowing I dropped a bit of pace but was able to get back at the front,” Hamilton added.
Source: F1 Fanatic
Home crowd favourite Fernando Alonso was left feeling disappointed by the margin to Mercedes. The Ferrari was nearly two seconds slower than the Silver Arrows. Autosport.com has the story.
Fernando Alonso says Ferrari being nearly two seconds slower than Mercedes in Spanish Grand Prix qualifying is more depressing than being being seventh on the grid at home.
Spain’s national hero qualified one place behind Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen at Barcelona, as he lapped 1.908s shy of polesitter Lewis Hamilton’s Merccedes.
“It’s probably the worst bit of today,” said Alonso of the large time deficit.
“It’s not the seventh place or how far we are from the podium, it’s that 1.8s is a lot and we want to change this.
“What we need to do is just work and deliver the results. There will be new parts in Canada, that’s for sure, and we will bring some to Monaco and Silverstone, we brought parts here, we have six or seven, but it’s difficult to make magic.”
Alonso denied that Ferrari’s upgrades for Spain had turned out to be a retrograde step, saying it was more a case of Mercedes’ developments being even better than its rivals’.
“I think they brought some new parts which seem to work fine, and they had a big gap [already], now maybe they’ve extended the gap,”he said.
“We brought some new parts, some of them were positive, some of them negative, and we will need time to develop, but the car is definitely better than in China.
“This is always the same thing, you bring a couple of tenths and the other teams bring a few tenths and you are in the same position. They bring less, they gain some, you bring less, the gap increases… it’s nothing new this year.”
The Ferrari driver also suspects the low-grip conditions all teams have encountered at Barcelona are exacerbating the pack behind Mercedes’ handling shortcomings.
“We faced difficult conditions all weekend, not only for us for everybody with low grip, and maybe that was an extra factor to increase their advantage,” Alonso suggested.
“I’m confident, or I hope, that this 1.8s will not become that much more. We will close that gap starting from Monte Carlo, there are not many straights and hopefully we can be closer.
“From Canada onwards we will try to be not that far away.”
This was a frustrating qualifying session for Sebastian Vettel. After a non-show in Friday’s practice session with a loom issue, the world champion had another problem in qualifying. This time the gearbox.
The defending world champion hoped he could nurse the gearbox in Q3 to no avail. Autosport.com has the news story.
Sebastian Vettel said he was hoping to attempt a Spanish Grand Prix qualifying lap without second gear before his Red Bull came to a complete halt during Q3 at Barcelona.
The reigning Formula 1 world champion has had a troubled weekend in Spain, with electrical problems and the need to change a wiring loom ruling him out of the majority of Friday practice, and then the gearbox issue leaving him 10th on the grid.
Red Bull said it was not yet clear whether a mechanical or software issue had caused the problem.
“I left the pits in Q3 and selected first gear to leave then went up to second and I lost drive in second gear,” Vettel explained.
“I went to third and had third, so decided to keep on going without second gear.
“By Turn 1 I got stuck in fifth gear and couldn’t go up nor down so lost drive and had to stop.
“There is no damage to the gearbox today, so no penalty for tomorrow.”
Vettel admitted that his disrupted build-up was likely to put him at a disadvantage in Sunday’s race.
“It’s obviously tough because I don’t have as much information on the car and I can’t get into a rhythm having missed both practice sessions,” he said.
“Unfortunately a very small cable got caught in a tricky place yesterday and we were just unlucky.”
His team-mate Daniel Ricciardo qualified third, beaten only by the currently dominant Mercedes.
Ricciardo did not rule out trying to challenge Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in the race, but conceded that ‘best of the rest’ honours were more realistic.
“One second [gap to pole] is too much – even with a different strategy in the race, it will be hard to make up one second,” said the Australian.
“We have to keep chipping away. We will put up a fight tomorrow and at least get on the podium. If we cannot do anything about them, we will try to keep the others behind us.
“The pace yesterday was good, still not as good as Mercedes but in relative terms we made the tyres last a long way.”
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen reckons every flying lap is a fight with the F14 T. The Iceman could only manage sixth position, one place ahead of his team-mate Fernando Alonso. Autosport.com has the details.
Kimi Raikkonen says every qualifying lap is a battle at the moment as he continues to try to get to grips with Ferrari’s 2014 Formula 1 car.
The Finn outpaced team-mate Fernando Alonso in Spanish Grand Prix qualifying, taking sixth place – one spot ahead of the sister car.
But asked if that was a sign of progress, Raikkonen replied: “No, the morning was a disaster and we changed the car quite a bit.
“It was still very difficult, I had to fight a lot to get the one lap out. There are small things all the time and it’s tricky to get the one lap.
“You have to stay on line and try not to make a mistake, it’s always a fight to get the lap out, and obviously it’s still disappointing to be six or seventh.
“We still want to be at the front so we cannot be happy but that’s how it goes.
“It was better this afternoon, but still not where we should be.”
Raikkonen shrugged off the significance of outqualifying Alonso.
“Obviously people are interested on that side but for me it’s about being at the front,” he said.
“It doesn’t give me much satisfaction to be only six or seventh, that’s not where we want to be.
“There’s a much bigger picture that we have to look at and right now it’s nice, but [outqualifying Alonso] isn’t going to change my life.
He also played down the chances of Ferrari fighting for a podium on Sunday.
“That’s the aim but is it going to happen? Hard to say,” Raikkonen responded when asked if he expected a podium bid.
“This year there has always been something that has happened to make it difficult so hopefully it’s just a normal race.”
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg tought he had Lewis Hamilton beaten at qualifying. But his team-mate had other ideas. Autosport.com has the details.
Nico Rosberg believed he had done enough to beat Formula 1 title rival Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix.
The 28-year-old was fastest in both Q1 and Q2, but was pipped to pole by his Mercedes team-mate by 0.168 seconds.
Rosberg was a tenth-and-a-half faster than Hamilton in the final sector, but was outpaced.
“I was surprised because my lap was good and I thought I had it,” said Rosberg.
“Of course, I was never underestimating him because I knew that he was just not getting his laps together.
“He was quick all along, but just not putting in the laptimes that he would be able to do.
“But I did think my lap was good enough and I was surprised and disappointed that he beat me to it.”
Hamilton admitted that after a strong performance during Friday practice, he has struggled more today.
But he was delighted to have pulled a good lap out of the bag to turn the tables, although he warned that set-up differences between himself and Rosberg could mean things change in the race.
“When you have been on the back foot and your team-mate has the upper hand but you manage to pull out an ace card just for that last lap, it’s a great feeling,” said Hamilton.
“We have a lot more work to do now to really think of where we need to go for tomorrow, what we can do within the parameters and try and see if we can hold onto it because Nico has got a slightly different setup.
“Which one is going to work tomorrow, we will see.”
Williams driver Valtteri Bottas admitted the car’s set-up transformed the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. Autosport.com has the full story.
Valtteri Bottas hailed significant set-up changes to his Williams Formula 1 car after the final free practice session for helping him to qualify fourth for the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Finn skipped first practice so Williams reserve driver Felipe Nasr could participate, and failed to make the top 10 in either of the remaining sessions as he struggled with the handling of his FW36.
But Bottas rallied in qualifying, finding speed in each segment thanks to a substantially revised set-up, which helped him to a best lap less than four tenths adrift of Daniel Ricciardo’s third-placed Red Bull, and five places ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa.
“Personally I had a really nice lap in the end, which felt good because it was a difficult weekend so far for me,” Bottas said.
“Practice two and three were quite difficult, but we made some quite big set-up changes for qualifying and finally started to get more trust for the rear of the car and that way managed to pick up some speed.
“It required a different driving style, but it came from something I noticed on Felipe’s car – some things we were doing differently with the set-up.
“Practice three was so difficult for me I thought it better to make a change than stay as we were because we were struggling.”
Team-mate Massa was quicker through the first two segments of qualifying, but rued an error in Q3 that restricted him to ninth on the grid for Sunday’s race.
“I had an incredible qualifying: Q1 and Q2 I was competitive, and then in Q3 I just locked the rear tyres braking for Turn 10, went straight out of the line and lost maybe six or seven tenths in one sector,” Massa explained.
“I’m really disappointed. Today it was easy to start both cars fourth and fifth so for sure I’m not starting on my [correct] position and I’m disappointed in me.
“It’s a shame because everything was going perfect through the whole weekend, but the race is tomorrow and you never know.
“It won’t be easy starting ninth, but we’ll see. Everything can happen and our car looks a little bit more competitive here.”
The most embarrassing moment during the qualifying session was when Pastor Maldonado crashed his Lotus on the out lap during Q1. The 2012 winner commented that his accident was ‘very strange’. Autosport.com has the news story.
Pastor Maldonado said his Spanish Grand Prix qualifying accident was a “very strange” one that could have been caused by low tyre pressures.
The Lotus driver failed to set a time in qualifying after losing control at Turn 3 on his first flying lap of Q1.
Maldonado, who won the 2012 Spanish GP for Williams, speared back across the track and hit the inside wall, damaging his Lotus’s right-front corner.
“I think there was something wrong with the tyre temperature or pressure,” he said.
“The car just skated, it’s a very fast corner, and then I went over to the green path which is paint and is more slippery and I lost the car more over there.
“It was in the exit of the corner. The corner was already done. Normally all the drivers are running over that green paint, like me yesterday and always.
“It’s a difficult part of the track but I think the problem came from something before.”
Maldonado’s team-mate Romain Grosjean qualified fifth – by far Lotus’s best result of a so-far troubled 2014 season.
Rather than leaving Maldonado more frustrated because his car’s potential had been wasted, the Venezuelan said Grosjean’s pace actually left him encouraged for his chances of a fightback on Sunday.
“When you have a more competitive car you can see, even tomorrow, ways to recover,” said Maldonado.
“The problem is when you don’t have the chance to compete against the others. “Now we can compete, we can play with the strategy, we can do many good things.”
Sebastian Vettel will be hit with a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull has confirmed.
The four times Formula 1 world champion was classified tenth in qualifying after being hit with a gearbox problem early in Q3.
Initially, Vettel lost only second gear and attempted to continue before the problem worsened.
He stopped on track, but the team has found that the gearbox problem necessitates a change.
F1 regulations demand that drivers use their gearbox for six consecutive events, with the five-place grid penalty the consequence of the need to change the gearbox.
This means he will be relegated to 15th place on the grid, behind Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren.
Source: Autosport.com