The Spanish GP Qualifying session begins – and tensions are high for Carlos Sainz, driving for Ferrari in front of his home crowd for the final time this weekend.
The Spanish driver finished fastest in FP3, hoping to secure a podium position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix.
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya track temperature is 10 degrees cooler than in FP3 earlier today.
Before the session begins, Stroll and Leclerc are handed reprimands for erratic, but not dangerous driving in the earlier practice session.
Q1:
The green light and go is given, Q1 is underway!
Zhou Guanyu and Logan Sargeant are first to take to the track.
After Zhou sets the first lap, Sergeant, and then Ricciardo cross the line ahead of him. Ricciardo goes fastest with a 1:13:771.
Perez will be given a three-place penalty, regardless of his result in this session, for driving to the pits in the Canadian GP in an unsafe manner. He goes fastest with a 1:13:771 on the soft compound tyre.
The fastest time in FP3 was a 1:13:00, so we expect times to improve across the board.
Verstappen goes quickest with a 1:12:306, quickly replaced by Leclerc’s 1:12:257, whilst Gasly and Hulkenberg move into sixth and seventh place.
With seven minutes to go, Albon, Tsunoda, Guanyu, Magnussen, and Sargeant are in the elimination zone.
Sargeant charges his battery on the racing line and blocks Stroll, this has been reported to race control.
The other Williams of Albon is the only one left on track, everyone else has taken to the pits. He does a decent lap on the soft tyres in his struggling car, moving up to 12th.
With two minutes to go, the RB’s of Ricciardo and Tsunoda both find themselves in the elimination zone, not a great spot for the team to be in.
Perez seems to be struggling and moves up to P6, whilst his teammate sits in P2.
Magnussen, Tsunoda, Ricciardo, Albon, and Sargeant are out in Q1!
Stroll squeezes through in 15th, whilst Hamilton, Leclerc, Verstappen, Norris, and Sainz, are the fastest five.
After qualifying has ended, Russell, Stroll, and Sargeant will be investigated for failing to keep the maximum delta time.
Q2:
Stroll is first to take to the track, and two minutes in, nobody else has joined him. On the softs, he puts in a time of 1:13:630.
As the Aston Martin comes in, the other drivers start queuing to join the track, with 10 minutes to go.
Perez goes fastest with a 1:12:270, but is quickly beaten by Gasly who is 0:088 faster than the Red Bull.
The times keep improving, with Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz, Norris, and Verstappen beating his time.
Mercedes seem to be struggling despite their earlier performance, with Hamilton down in the elimination zone in 13th, complaining about the used softs he has on the car – “this tyre was bad.”
With two minutes to go, Ocon, Bottas, Alonso, Hamilton, and Zhou round out the bottom five.
Hamilton pulls out a stellar lap, going second fastest and pulling himself out of the bottom five, with a 1:11:792.
Out in Q2: Alonso, Bottas, Hulkenberg, Stroll, Zhou.
Perez sits in 8th currently, through to Q3, but still awaiting a three-place drop following his Q3 performance.
Verstappen, Hamilton, and Russell round out the top 3.
Q3:
Q3 is underway, and as usual, Verstappen is the man to beat!
The Red Bull’s are the first cars to hit the track, with Perez first to start warming his used soft compound tyres as he prepares for his first flying lap.
He sets the scene for the session with a 1:13:061.
Verstappen grabs the fastest sector one, quickly replaced by Sainz’s rapid pace behind him.
With a 1:11:673 on the board, Sainz, Piastri, Ocon, and Perez sit behind Verstappen.
Under 7 minutes to go, and despite drivers setting fastest sectors, nobody gets close to the Red Bull’s fiery pace, with Norris in second, +0:123 behind Verstappen.
5 minutes left and the standings are: Verstappen, Norris, Hamilton, Russell, Sainz, Leclerc, Gasly, Ocon, Perez, Piastri.
Everyone is in the pits, preparing to get out again and beat their existing lap times – and most importantly, Verstappen.
Piastri drifts off into the gravel and finishes with no time, in P10, whilst Sainz goes into P2, quickly replaced by teammate Leclerc.
Norris jumps ahead of Verstappen, with an incredible 1:11:38 in the McLaren.
Norris, Verstappen, and Hamilton round out the top 3.
Russell, Leclerc, Sainz, Gasly, Perez, Ocon, and Piastri round out the top ten, meaning Perez will start P11 in tomorrow’s race.
This is the McLaren driver’s second pole position in his career.
