Charles Leclerc nabbed his fourth pole of the season in brilliant fashion on Saturday in Spain, ruining his first flying lap of Q3 by spinning out in the final chicane before storming back to win the pole in the final moments.
Max Verstappen ended up second after losing power midway through section two of his final lap in the session. The Red Bull car has been very up-and-down this season, and this is just the latest electrical problem for the organization. Carlos Sainz qualified third for his home race on the calendar.
George Russell qualified fourth and Sergio Perez rounded out the top five. Lewis Hamilton finally had a decent qualifying run this season and will start sixth on the grid tomorrow. Valtteri Bottas was the “best of the rest” in seventh.
It was a good day for Haas, as both of their drivers, Kevin Magnussen (8th) and Mick Schumacher (10th) made it into Q3. Daniel Ricciardo qualified ninth.
Outside of Leclerc’s spin and Verstappen’s power issues, there were no incidents in any of the three rounds.
Q2
Lando Norris qualified 11th after his last lap time was disallowed due to going wide and exceeding track limits. Esteban Ocon had to settle for 12th in the session. Yuki Tsunoda (13th) beat teammate Pierre Gasly (14th), while rookie Zhou Guanyu qualified well behind his teammate in 15th.
Q1
Sebastian Vettel just missed Q2 by .074 on the time chart. Fernando Alonso disappointingly qualified 17th for his home race after a strong Friday in practice, followed by Lance Stroll (18th) and Alex Albon (19th). Nicholas Latifi took up the rear in 20th.
About the author
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.
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