Leclerc beats Verstappen to pole at Spanish Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc took pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.

Leclerc’s qualifying saw a brief hiccup after the Monegasque spun at the beginning of Q3, allowing rival Verstappen to take an early provisional pole position.

But the Dutchman had his own bad luck at the end of the session, facing a DRS issue that prevented him from completing his final qualifying lap.

With this, the two championship rivals will start 1-2 on the grid tomorrow, as home hero Sainz took third ahead of the two Mercedes cars and Sergio Perez.

So, Leclerc has the advantage on the grid tomorrow, but remains wary of Red Bull and Verstappen.

Speaking in the post-qualifying interviews, Leclerc said:

“I am in a strong position to start the race but we’ve been struggling with tyres in the last few races compared to Red Bull.

“Max is just behind and if we don’t manage those tyres well we will lose that win.

“We need to get on top of it and do a good job tomorrow with tyre management.”

Mercedes rise from the midfield to take fourth and sixth

In complete contrast to their recent qualifying struggles, Mercedes’ new upgrades have allowed the squad to resume their place near the front of the field.

George Russell ended the day in fourth, believing that his qualifying was not as good as it could have been, while Sir Lewis Hamilton’s negative stance on the W13 seems to have ended following this result.

Although these positions may not seem like a major boost in performance for the German manufacturer, their confidence in their own race pace has not been hidden following qualifying in Barcelona.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, team principal Toto Wolff labelled his team’s car as a “race car”, not a “qualifying car”.

He said:

“I think where we slotted in today is, somehow, the best we could have expected.

“We have a race car, more than a qualifying car.

“I think with Red Bull, they always have a tendency of being much stronger in the race than the Ferraris, but obviously that’s all glass ball reading.

Aston Martin fail to shine despite upgrades

Aston Martin have come under what may be some unwanted attention following their new upgrade package in Spain, bringing sidepods that look strikingly similar to those of Red Bull Racing.

However, these upgrades did not boost the team’s fortunes, with both Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll failing to break out of Q1 today.

Stroll finished only two tenths ahead of the Williams pair, who locked out the back row of the grid, while teammate Vettel missed out on Q2 by half a second to the Alfa Romeo of Guanyu Zhou.

In comparison to their pace earlier in the weekend, the new updates brought to Spain by the Silverstone-based outfit clearly need some work if they hope to break into the midfield fight.

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