Formula 1 moved to Barcelona this week as Lewis Hamilton returned to pole position setting a time of 1:15.584 after last week’s disappointing finish at Silverstone. Valtteri Bottas finished second to have another Mercedes front-row lockout.
Last week’s winner Max Verstappen finished third fastest in qualifying and will be hoping for a repeat of the Silverstone win, who starts third for the second consecutive week. Hamilton achieved the 92nd pole of his career.
Sebastian Vettel narrowly missed out on qualifying for Q3 and will start 11th in the grid tomorrow. Sergio Perez returned to the circuit after testing negative for COVID-19 and looked impressive in the Catalunya sun. Racing Point were impressive again as Perez and Lance Stroll finished 4th and 5th respectively. They will be looking to bounce back after suffering a 15 point deduction for allegedly illegally copying Mercedes’ 2019 car brake ducts.
Ferrari’s disappointing start to the season continued as Vettel, with a new chassis couldn’t make it to Q3 while Charles Leclerc finished in 9th ahead of Pierre Gasly.
Kimi Raikonnen managed to qualify for Q2 for the first time this season and will start in 14th in the grid. His Alpha Tauri teammate, Antonio Giovinazzi disappointingly finished in the last place. Renault had a tough outing in qualifying with both drivers struggling to produce their best times with Daniel Ricciardo finishing in 12th while his teammate Esteban Ocon ending in a dismal 14th position.
Career pole No. 92 for @LewisHamilton 👏#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/kuR74vV0nD
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 15, 2020
McLaren gave Carlos Sainz a fresh power unit ahead of final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, as they continue their quest to cure his car’s cooling issues and had a relatively good qualifying finishing in 7th place, ahead of teammate Lando Norris. Haas replicated the same for Romain Grosjean after he had power issues in FP2 yesterday, but both Haas drivers couldn’t manage to make it to Q2.
Qualifying: 2019 vs. 2020 #SpanishGP
Mercedes: +0.178s
Ferrari: +0.815s
Red Bull: -0.065s
McLaren: -0.294s
Renault: -0.908s
Alpha Tauri: -0.437s
Racing Point: -1.404s
Alfa Romeo: -0.402s (Medium)
Haas: +0.997s
Williams: -0.973s#F1 #SpanishGP #F1Stats— F1 Stats (@F1Stats5) August 15, 2020
The race on Sunday will be an interesting one as the temperatures soared high in Barcelona this week and could affect tyre temperatures. Mercedes’ have encountered tyre problems in the last two races with considerable blistering causing a double puncture in the British GP almost a fortnight ago.
Max Verstappen will have his work cut out on Sunday if he has to replicate last Sunday’s performance. In the Constructors’ standings, Lewis Hamilton has taken a sizeable lead over his teammate and Red Bull’s Verstappen and will be looking to increase his lead and inch closer to winning a record-equaling 7th World Championship alongside Michael Schumacher.
ALSO READ:
Lewis Hamilton comes up with excuses as Max Verstappen wins the 70th Anniversary GP