Mercedes collision, Leclerc’s woes and Mclaren’s huge leap forward. Verstappen dominated a thrilling qualifying session at the Spanish GP

After a stop in Monaco, Formula 1 moved to the circuit in Barcelona, Spain. As expected, Max Verstappen took pole position in Saturday’s qualifying after a convincing performance. The home fans were delighted with a great performance by Carlos Sainz, who will start the Grand Prix from the front row. The biggest surprise was Lando Norris, who will start his MCL60 in third place.

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has undergone a significant change ahead of this year’s event, with the chicane in the last section of the track being removed, and the circuit is now finished with two fast right-hand corners. The last time this configuration was raced in the last sector was in 2006. Fernando Alonso is the only driver on the grid who is familiar with this version of the last sector.

Q1

After the rain, which significantly affected the Formula 2 sprint race and partly the last F1 practice session, the drivers set off on an already dry track. The last remnants of water remained at Turn 10, where Júki Cunoda spun right out of the pits and Valtteri Bottas and Nyck de Vries also set fast laps on their first attempt.

Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso were also unable to stay on track. Although all drivers managed to return to the track from the duck, the race directorate raised red flags.

After the restart, Leclerc in the Ferrari and Pérez in the Red Bull struggled for a long time. Both drivers were in non-advancing positions with five minutes to go in Q1. Along with them, Cunoda, Albon and Sargeant were at the tail of the field.

The track warmed up noticeably in the last few minutes, and with it the lap times of all the drivers naturally increased. This meant a big problem for Perez and Leclerc, who tried to complete their “rescue” laps as soon as possible.

The Mexican in the service of Red Bull climbed up to fourth place, but after attempts by the other pilots, he fell to the last place. The Ferrari driver was not so lucky. With the number 19 next to his name on the scoreboard after qualifying, he dropped out of qualifying.

Leclerc will join the Williams sandwich for the start. Logan Sargeant set the slowest time, with his teammate Albon’s performance only good enough for 18th.

Magnussen failed to take full advantage of Haas’ potential. He lost 6 tenths of a second to Hülkenberg and only took 17th place.

Valtteri Bottas was the best of the non-advancers. The Finnish driver lost just one tenth of a second to 15th-placed Pérez.

Q2

The second qualifying session was quieter at the start. Verstappen set the pace from the start, with Hamilton coming closest. As expected, both Mclarens, both AlphaTauri and Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas lined up on the non-advancing positions after the first laps.

Pérez had a nightmare on his second attempt. He lost control of his RB19 on the approach to turn five and went on a duck-and-cover trip. There was no time for a pit stop and he had to make his last attempt with dirty tyres. In the end, he didn’t make it to Q3 by 5 hundredths.

George Russell was the next surprise looker. He struggled to warm up his tyres throughout qualifying and his time secured him 12th place.

A rather curious situation occurred at the end of qualifying between the two Mercedes drivers. On the home straight, Hamilton tried to overtake Russell, who was unaware of his teammate, crossing his path and damaging his front wing.

The seven-time world champion, however, need not have minded the botched attempt. He qualified comfortably from fourth place in Q3.

Along with Pérez and Russell, Kuan-yu Zhou, Nyck de Vries and Júki Cunoda were eliminated in the second qualifying.

Q3

Mclaren must be extremely pleased with his qualifying in Barcelona. Both of the British team’s drivers made it into the top 10, with Norris even qualifying in 3rd place after a stunning performance.

A completely different race awaits the Ferrari drivers on Sunday. While Leclerc will have an almost superhuman task ahead of him, fighting his way up from second to last place to the points, Sainz will be attacking the podium from second place at the start.

Unlike Sainz, Alonso’s home qualifying was not a success. Due to floor damage, he was unable to squeeze the maximum out of his monoposto and will start the race from ninth place. His teammate Stroll finished sixth in qualifying.

Team Alpine also had a great Saturday. Esteban Ocon set the seventh fastest time in the third qualifying session, with Gasly fourth. Gasly’s starting position is in jeopardy, however, due to two instances in which he got in the way of drivers during fast laps in the earlier stages of qualifying.

Max Verstappen was absolutely dominant as usual. The Dutch phenomenon was half a second clear of the rest of the field, and he didn’t even finish his last attempt, in which he was even faster. The Barcelona championship leader took the 24th pole position of his career.

You can see the final results of qualifying and therefore the provisional standings for the start of tomorrow’s race in the post below.

Source: F1TV