Charles Leclerc claimed his fourth pole position of the season with a superb final lap during qualifying for Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Leclerc had been at the foot of the top 10 following the first Q3 push laps after a mistake through the chicane left him facing the wrong way.
But Leclerc blitzed to the front of the field on his second push lap by clocking a time of 1:18.750s.
That effort lifted him three-tenths clear of reigning World Champion Max Verstappen and secured Ferrari’s first pole at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya since 2008.
Verstappen set the benchmark through the first Q3 runs but as he prepared for his second effort he reported a loss of power and was told to return to the garage.
Verstappen ignored the request but as he entered Turn 3 on his hot lap he abandoned his effort.
Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz qualified in third position in front of his home fans.
Mercedes’ nine-year pole position streak in Spain came to a conclusion but the reigning champions demonstrated an upturn in performance.
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth and sixth respectively, split by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Valtteri Bottas continued his strong qualifying form as he wound up seventh for Alfa Romeo.
Haas captured its first double Q3 appearance since 2019 despite opting not to bring upgrades to its VF-22.
Kevin Magnussen secured eighth, with Mick Schumacher rounding out the top 10, either side of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Lando Norris was shuffled outside of the top 10 in the closing stages of Q2 after having his final push lap deleted for exceeding track limits.
Norris had improved on his last effort but he was judged to have abused the track limits through Turn 12 and the deletion of that lap demoted him to 11th place.
Esteban Ocon was only 12th on a deflating day for Alpine while AlphaTauri also had a subdued showing.
Yuki Tsunoda was 13th, with Pierre Gasly 14th, the Frenchman having missed the final practice session due to a power unit problem. Sole rookie Zhou Guanyu was 15th for Alfa Romeo.
Aston Martin captured the attention during the build-up with its overhauled AMR22 bearing a resemblance to Red Bull’s front-running RB18.
But the sizeable upgrade failed to transform Aston Martin’s fortunes as neither Sebastian Vettel nor Lance Stroll made it through Q1.
Vettel qualified in 16th place while Stroll was left down in 18th, faster only than Williams pair Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi.
It was also a disappointing day for Fernando Alonso.
Alonso was shuffled down into the Q1 drop zone and then encountered traffic on his out-lap as he prepared for his final push lap.
Stewards briefly investigated the situation but deemed no further action was warranted.
Alonso was unable to improve on his final push lap and wound up in 17th spot.
Sunday’s 66-lap Spanish Grand Prix is scheduled for 15:00 local time
[motorsport_result id='86138']
