Hamilton claimed his 100th pole position by edging out Max Verstappen in qualifying ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton claimed a century of pole positions as he narrowly beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and teammate Valtteri Bottas.

The Brit will be partnered on the front row by the Dutchman, who missed out on pole position by 0.036s, as both drivers failed to improve on their final timed laps in qualifying as the wind increased.

The duo qualified ahead of Hamilton’s teammate Bottas who was 0.132s further back in third. Charles Leclerc impressed as he claimed best of the rest as he placed his Ferrari in fourth as Sergio Perez failed to put his Red Bull car anywhere near his teammate.

Q1

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First out on track were both Haas drivers, followed by both Williams and the majority of the field shortly followed.

Bottas sat at the top of the timing sheets with a 1:18.005 before the final runs in Q1, Hamilton found himself down in sixth, as he had to go for a second lap on his tyres.

George Russell continued his impressive form as he slotted his Williams into 11th before his final effort.

Drivers started to improve as the track began to ramp up, Lance Stroll was the first of the bottom five to improve as he placed his Aston Martin up to eighth.

His improvement was at the expense of rookie Yuki Tsunoda who made an error on his final lap. The AlphaTauri driver was knocked out of qualifying by just seven-thousandths to Antonio Giovinazzi.

Lando Norris topped the session at the end of Q1 as he led Bottas and Leclerc after improving on his final lap. The McLaren driver set a 1:17.821, four-tenths quicker than his McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Eliminated in Q1 was Nikita Mazepin, Nicholas Latifi, Mick Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Yuki Tsunoda.

Q2

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In Q2, it was Verstappen who jumped to the top of the times with five minutes remaining in the session, the Dutchman set a 1:16.922 as Red Bull finally showed their pace for the first time this weekend.

Perez was at risk with his final effort to come as he was down in 12th, while Lance Stroll lead Aston Martin in the top 10 ahead of the final runs.

Ferrari looked impressive as both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc progressed through to the final stage of qualifying.

No one was able to get near Verstappen’s benchmark, as he opted to stay in the pits after a sublime banker in the session. The shock of the session was Pierre Gasly who failed to make Q3 as he placed his AlphaTauri in 12th.

Alongside Gasly the other drivers eliminated in Q2 were: Lance Stroll, Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi and George Russell.

Q3

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From the off, it was a battle between the two Mercedes’ and Max Verstappen in the shootout for pole position. After their initial efforts, it was Hamilton who took provisional pole position ahead of Verstappen.

The 36-year-old set a 1:16.741 beating the Dutchman by four-hundredths despite having some gravel in his eye line when Sergio Perez span on his first effort in qualifying.

The pressure was yet again on Mexican Sergio Perez as he had set no lap time. As the drivers completed their final laps, Perez was only quick enough for eighth which means we will see only one Red Bull at the front of the field tomorrow.

The leading trio failed to improve on their lap times as Hamilton claimed his 100th career pole position ahead of Verstappen and Bottas. Leclerc improved on his final lap as he claimed fourth with Ocon in fifth, who has yet again out-qualified two-time champion, Fernando Alonso.

The second Ferrari of Sainz is in sixth, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. Perez disappointed as he could only manage a lap time good enough for eighth, Lando Norris struggled on his final effort in ninth, while Fernando Alonso completed the top 10.

What’s Next?

Saturday’s qualifying gives the platform for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix to be a nail-biting race, with two championship rivals heading the field.

Verstappen will be keen to get the jump on Hamilton off the start as 28 of the 30 races hosted in Barcelona have been won from the front row with 22 wins coming from pole position which proves how hard it can be to overtake here in Spain.

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