Hamilton storms to pole in Spainposted in F114 | 05 | 2016

    LEWIS HAMILTON STORMED to pole position for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix as he bids to close the 43-point gap to his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg. The German starts on the front row of the grid alongside the three-time world champ.

    Hamilton sealed his pole position on his second run in Q3 when he lapped in 1m 22.000s, 0.280s ahead of Rosberg, who has won the last eight grands prix.

    Daniel Ricciardo won the battle of the Red Bulls, but only just. The Aussie, six-tenths behind Rosberg's Mercedes, starts third having lapped just over two-tenths clear of new team-mate Max Verstappen, who had split the Mercedes after the first runs in Q3.

    It was a disappointing session though for Ferrari, which had looked close to Mercedes' pace in practice. Kimi Raikkonen was fifth fastest, just 0.026s slower than Verstappen, while team-mate Sebastian Vettel qualified 0.221s further back in sixth.

    Related: Max Verstappen hails "amazing opportunity"

    The Williams of Valtteri Bottas beat Carlos Sainz Jr's Toro Rosso to seventh spot by just over a tenth, with the Force India of Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso's McLaren-Honda (the team in Q3 for the first time this season) rounding out the top 10.

    The Force India of Nico Hulkenberg failed to make the top-10 shootout by just 0.011s, with the McLaren of Jenson Button 12th fastest, just under a tenth clear of Toro Rosso returnee Daniil Kvyat.

    The Haas of Romain Grosjean qualified 14th, and he was split from his team-mate Esteban Gutierrez by another impressive performance from Renault's Kevin Magnussen, who qualified 15th fastest in his under-developed car.

    The Williams of Felipe Massa fell unexpectedly in Q1, after he aborted his second run. He ended up 19th fastest, just behind the Renault of Jolyon Palmer, who briefly looked set to make it through to Q2 before a late improvement by Button's McLaren.

    Palmer swore over team radio when informed he had just missed the cut.

    F1 — Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Catalunya (Qualifying):

    1. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 22.000s

    2. Nico Rosberg GER Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 22.280s

    3. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault 1m 22.680s

    4. Max Verstappen NED Red Bull-Renault 1m 23.087s

    5. Kimi Raikkonen FIN Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 23.113s

    6. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 23.334s

    7. Valtteri Bottas FIN Williams-Mercedes 1m 23.522s

    8. Carlos Sainz Jr ESP Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 23.643s

    9. Sergio Perez MEX Force India-Mercedes 1m 23.782s

    10. Fernando Alonso ESP McLaren-Honda 1m 23.981s

    11. Nico Hulkenberg GER Force India-Mercedes 1m 24.203s

    12. Jenson Button GBR McLaren-Honda 1m 24.348s

    13. Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 24.445s

    14. Romain Grosjean FRA Haas-Ferrari 1m 24.480s

    15. Kevin Magnussen DEN Renault-Renault 1m 24.625s

    16. Esteban Gutierrez MEX Haas-Ferrari 1m 24.778s

    17. Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault-Renault 1m 24.903s

    18. Felipe Massa BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1m 24.941s

    19. Felipe Nasr BRA Sauber-Ferrari 1m 25.202s

    20. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1m 25.579s

    21. Pascal Wehrlein GER Manor-Mercedes 1m 25.754s

    22. Rio Haryanto INA Manor-Mercedes 1m 25.939s

    Related: Roadtest — Ford Focus RS

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    Jim McGill

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