Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA

Grand Prix qualifying results: Hamilton takes pole in Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton took pole position – the 100th of his F1 career – for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona for Mercedes on Saturday, the fourth round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship season.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Hamilton will start ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

Read Also:

Spanish Grand Prix qualifying results: Hamilton on pole from Verstappen

Cla Driver Time Gap km/h
1 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
1'16.741 218.370
2 Netherlands Max Verstappen
1'16.777 0.036 218.268
3 Finland Valtteri Bottas
1'16.873 0.132 217.995
4 Monaco Charles Leclerc
1'17.510 0.769 216.204
5 France Esteban Ocon
1'17.580 0.839 216.009
6 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
1'17.620 0.879 215.897
7 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
1'17.622 0.881 215.892
8 Mexico Sergio Perez
1'17.701 0.960 215.672
9 United Kingdom Lando Norris
1'18.010 1.269 214.818
10 Spain Fernando Alonso
1'18.147 1.406 214.442
11 Canada Lance Stroll
1'17.974 1.233 214.917
12 France Pierre Gasly
1'17.982 1.241 214.895
13 Germany Sebastian Vettel
1'18.079 1.338 214.628
14 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
1'18.356 1.615 213.870
15 United Kingdom George Russell
1'19.154 2.413 211.713
16 Japan Yuki Tsunoda
1'18.556 1.815 213.325
17 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
1'18.917 2.176 212.349
18 Germany Mick Schumacher
1'19.117 2.376 211.812
19 Canada Nicholas Latifi
1'19.219 2.478 211.540
20 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin
1'19.807 3.066 209.981

What happened in Q1?

The first session, when all cars are on track together, was delayed by 10 minutes due to barrier repairs.

Once it got going, Bottas set the early pace at 1m18.005s on medium tyres, 0.085s faster than Verstappen who was using softs. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was third quickest, ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Hamilton, who was a quarter of a second off the pace in sixth.

Read Also:

McLaren’s Lando Norris, whose first run was ruined by traffic, took P1 at his second attempt with 1m17.821s, which was 0.184s faster than Bottas. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc leapt up to third on a second run, just 0.036s off Bottas’s time.

Falling at the first hurdle were AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (who ran wide on what should’ve been his fastest lap), Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, Mick Schumacher (Haas), Nicholas Latifi (who lost part of his Williams’ underside after running wide at Turn 9) and the second Haas of Nikita Mazepin.

Read Also:

Spanish Grand Prix Q1 results: Norris fastest from Bottas

Cla Driver Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 United Kingdom Lando Norris
6 1'17.821 215.340
2 Finland Valtteri Bottas
4 1'18.005 0.184 0.184 214.832
3 Monaco Charles Leclerc
6 1'18.041 0.220 0.036 214.733
4 Netherlands Max Verstappen
5 1'18.090 0.269 0.049 214.598
5 France Pierre Gasly
3 1'18.190 0.369 0.100 214.324
6 Mexico Sergio Perez
6 1'18.203 0.382 0.013 214.288
7 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
3 1'18.205 0.384 0.002 214.282
8 Canada Lance Stroll
6 1'18.241 0.420 0.036 214.184
9 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
7 1'18.245 0.424 0.004 214.173
10 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
3 1'18.264 0.443 0.019 214.121
11 France Esteban Ocon
3 1'18.281 0.460 0.017 214.074
12 Spain Fernando Alonso
6 1'18.281 0.460 0.000 214.074
13 Germany Sebastian Vettel
6 1'18.289 0.468 0.008 214.053
14 United Kingdom George Russell
8 1'18.445 0.624 0.156 213.627
15 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
6 1'18.549 0.728 0.104 213.344
16 Japan Yuki Tsunoda
6 1'18.556 0.735 0.007 213.325
17 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
6 1'18.917 1.096 0.361 212.349
18 Germany Mick Schumacher
9 1'19.117 1.296 0.200 211.812
19 Canada Nicholas Latifi
9 1'19.219 1.398 0.102 211.540
20 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin
9 1'19.807 1.986 0.588 209.981

What happened in Q2?

In Q2, the pole position-hunting protagonists eschewed the usual practice of running medium tyre – as they wanted to save them for the race, so the top-10 cars will all start the race on softs.

Verstappen unleashed the true pace of his Red Bull, producing a lap of 1m16.922s that was almost half a second clear of Bottas after the first runs. Hamilton was 0.71s off in third, and he had Norris right behind him.

Read Also:

Everyone apart from Verstappen ran again, with both Mercedes improving their times – Bottas getting to within 0.22s of the pace, with Hamilton close behind him despite using a set of tyres he’d scrubbed-in during Q1. Sainz jumped up for fourth, ahead of Perez.

Knocked out at this point were Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Gasly, the second Aston of Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and George Russell (Williams, who’d run out of fresh soft tyres).

Spanish Grand Prix Q2 results: Verstappen fastest from Bottas

Cla Driver Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen
3 1'16.922 217.857
2 Finland Valtteri Bottas
6 1'17.142 0.220 0.220 217.235
3 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
6 1'17.166 0.244 0.024 217.168
4 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
6 1'17.656 0.734 0.490 215.797
5 Mexico Sergio Perez
6 1'17.669 0.747 0.013 215.761
6 United Kingdom Lando Norris
5 1'17.696 0.774 0.027 215.686
7 Monaco Charles Leclerc
6 1'17.717 0.795 0.021 215.628
8 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
6 1'17.719 0.797 0.002 215.622
9 France Esteban Ocon
6 1'17.743 0.821 0.024 215.556
10 Spain Fernando Alonso
5 1'17.966 1.044 0.223 214.939
11 Canada Lance Stroll
6 1'17.974 1.052 0.008 214.917
12 France Pierre Gasly
6 1'17.982 1.060 0.008 214.895
13 Germany Sebastian Vettel
6 1'18.079 1.157 0.097 214.628
14 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
6 1'18.356 1.434 0.277 213.870
15 United Kingdom George Russell
3 1'19.154 2.232 0.798 211.713

What happened in Q3?

In the top-10 shootout, Hamilton set the bar at 1m16.741s, just missing yellow flags for Perez spinning at Turn 13 after he dipped his tyres into the gravel on turn-in.

Verstappen was second fastest, 0.036s down, with Bottas a further tenth back in third. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was best of the rest, ahead of Sainz and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.

On the final runs, Hamilton had a big moment at the final chicane and didn’t improve, but neither did Verstappen nor Bottas, so Hamilton’s 100th career pole was confirmed.

Read Also:

Leclerc improved on his second run to jump up to fourth, ahead of Ocon, Sainz, Ricciardo, Perez, Norris and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso.

Spanish Grand Prix Q3 results: Hamilton takes pole

Cla Driver Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
6 1'16.741 218.370
2 Netherlands Max Verstappen
6 1'16.777 0.036 0.036 218.268
3 Finland Valtteri Bottas
6 1'16.873 0.132 0.096 217.995
4 Monaco Charles Leclerc
6 1'17.510 0.769 0.637 216.204
5 France Esteban Ocon
6 1'17.580 0.839 0.070 216.009
6 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
6 1'17.620 0.879 0.040 215.897
7 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
5 1'17.622 0.881 0.002 215.892
8 Mexico Sergio Perez
5 1'17.701 0.960 0.079 215.672
9 United Kingdom Lando Norris
6 1'18.010 1.269 0.309 214.818
10 Spain Fernando Alonso
6 1'18.147 1.406 0.137 214.442

Read Also:

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation

Related video

Previous article Hamilton: 100th F1 pole "feels like one of the first"
Next article Ex-F1 star Reutemann moved to intensive care

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA