Spanish GP: Hamilton beats Vettel to pole by 0.051s

Lewis Hamilton beat Formula 1 title rival Sebastian Vettel to pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix, after a thrilling qualifying battle.

Ferrari had set the pace in final practice at Barcelona’s Catalunya circuit, but Hamilton’s Mercedes held the advantage in qualifying after the first runs in Q3, lapping in a 1m19.149s time that would eventually stand for pole when Hamilton failed to improve on his second run.

Vettel suffered from a de-rating of his Ferrari’s energy recovery systems during his first Q3 run, and was a distant fourth quickest as a result, but he was lapping comfortably faster than Hamilton’s pole time on his final run before locking up at the final chicane.

Vettel eventually cut the timing beam in 1m19.200s, half a tenth down on Hamilton, apologising to his team for the mistake.

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas was third fastest, recovering from a wild slide exiting the chicane on his first Q3 run to ultimately lap 0.173s slower than Vettel with a small improvement on his second run.

Bottas described his performance as “not good enough”, but it was enough to confine the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen to fourth.

Raikkonen suffered an oversteer moment at Turn 12 on his first Q3 run and lost time in sector two on his final effort.

Max Verstappen was well clear of Daniel Ricciardo in the private battle between Red Bulls to be fifth, while Fernando Alonso produced a superb performance to haul McLaren-Honda into Q3 for the first time this season and qualify seventh fastest.

Force India got both its cars into the top 10 again, sandwiching Felipe Massa’s ninth-placed Williams.

DANIEL RICCIARDO: “I HOPE THE UPGRADE WILL GIVE US A CHANCE TO REALLY FIGHT”

Daniel Ricciardo heads to the Spanish Grand Prix feeling the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is amongst the best on the calendar as the layout offers a whole range of challenges on every lap.

The Red Bull Racing driver is also happy that his team can bring its Energy Station trackside for the first time in 2017, with the first four races being flyaway events in Australia, China, Bahrain and Russia, the Spanish circuit offering the opportunity for more privacy and better availability for training equipment.

“Barcelona is one of the better circuits on the calendar and it’s got a bit of everything,” said Ricciardo.  “Turns 1, 2 and 3 are really good flowing corners and the last section is very technical. The end of the lap is quite slow and that’s where your tyres start to drop off which is why it’s really hard to finish the lap clean.

“We’ll have the Energy Station back in Barcelona so that’s nice and it’ll be an easier environment to prepare in. We’ve got it now for a few months and that means that we can actually put some things in our room that we can come back to. Little things that give us privacy and that home feeling like favourite snacks, training equipment or our own shower.”

Ricciardo is hopeful that the planned upgrade Red Bull Racing are aiming to bring to Spain enables them to close the rather large gap between them and Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team and Scuderia Ferrari in 2017, with only the unsettled weather in China offering a chance for Red Bull to fight with those two teams ahead of them so far this season.

“I hope the upgrade will give us a chance to really fight with Mercedes and Ferrari or at least get us closer,” said Ricciardo.  “The reason why it comes in Barcelona is that we put everything back in the factory were very busy so now I hope that it’s a quicker improvement.

“It means that the people who do the work behind the scenes get their reward as well. It’s a good feeling for everyone when these upgrades work.”

Ricciardo does not believe that Pirelli’s decision to bring the hardest compound of tyre available to Spain will be beneficial for any of the teams on the grid, especially if it is held in relatively cold conditions, and as such the softer two compounds are likely to be the favoured ones this weekend.

“We’re going for the harder tyres for the first time this year in Barcelona,” said Ricciardo.  “I’m not sure if it’ll help us or not but I just don’t think it’s going to be good for anyone.

“The tyres are already hard enough so the harder compounds are just way too hard. Hopefully for Barcelona’s sake it’s hot and therefore these harder tyres work, but if it’s cold then it’s going to be a struggle for everyone

Vettel defends Raikkonen’s start to the season

Sebastian Vettel has said Kimi Raikkonen's poor start to the season is undeserved and has no doubts about the Finn's ability.

Just one podium finish has left Raikkonen 37 points adrift of team-mate and World Championship leader Vettel, but, according to the German, Raikkonen's results so far don't reflect the talent he still has.

"He probably didn't have the races he deserved," said Vettel. "In Bahrain obviously the start, the first lap cost him a lot, otherwise I'm sure he would've been on the podium.

"Obviously I see exactly what happens and things didn't go 100 percent in his direction so far but I don't think there's any doubt inside the paddock that he's one of the most talented drivers we have.

"I don't think anybody else could go to WRC and perform at the level he did, just come back and be right up to the pace again.

"I don't think there's anyone who doubts his skills or his talent but, as I said, you need to have a lot of things coming your way.

"If you look back last year, I had some races where things didn't come way – it's up and down but usually throughout the season it sort of equals out."