Qualifying for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix is over! What does the starting grid look like?

Once again we have had a nerve-wracking qualifying for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. How does the grid look for tomorrow’s race and who has taken pole position?

This qualifying session for Sunday’s Spanish GP was originally scheduled to start at 15:00. However, due to barrier repairs at turn nine, the start of Q1 was delayed by ten minutes. The first part of the qualifying session in particular did not produce any surprising results in terms of the composition of the very tail of the starting field.

Nikita Mazepin will start from the last place, losing about six tenths of a second to Nicholas Latifi in nineteenth. His teammate Mick Schumacher managed to get his Haas into at least eighteenth position behind seventeenth-placed Kimi Räikkönen. Yuki Tsunoda in the Alpha Tauri is the last driver to fail to progress to the next part of qualifying and will start from sixteenth position.

Up front, however, things were happening, as Q1 was dominated by Lando Norris in his McLaren. Hamilton, on the other hand, finished ninth in Q1.

The second part of the qualifying session went as expected. The driver who did not qualify for the final stage of qualifying was George Russell in the Williams, who will take fifteenth position at the start. Another driver who did not make it to Q3 is Italian Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi. He will start tomorrow’s race in 14th.

In between the two Aston Martin drivers (Vettel 13th, Stroll 11th) is Pierre Gasly in the number 12 position in his Alpha Tauri. The talented Frenchman lost just 0.016 seconds to the advancing tenth place!

In the final stage of qualifying we will therefore see the complete line-up of the top five teams in the starting field: Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Alpine.

Sergio Pérez overdid his efforts during Q3 and subsequently failed to control his car and spun out. Fortunately, his Red Bull was not damaged in any way. The experienced Mexican will start Sunday’s race from eighth on the grid. Behind him, Norris is ninth ahead of tenth-placed Fernando Alonso.

Seventh place went to Norris’ teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who was only two thousandths of a second slower than sixth-placed Carlos Sainz! Also setting a great time was Esteban Ocon, who took his Alpine to fifth. Position number 4 on the start list is occupied by Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc. This gives Ferrari a solid starting position for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas is third on the grid, six tenths of a second ahead of Leclerc in fourth. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen had a great battle for pole position. In the end, however, it is the British driver who will start from first place. Hamilton has now won his 100th pole position in Formula One!

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