Lewis Hamilton will start the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from pole position after setting the pace in qualifying.
The British driver was down on his team-mate Nico Rosberg after the first runs but reacted with a 1m22.000, which proved to be unbeatable. He finished three tenths clear of Rosberg, as Mercedes locked out the front row once again.
Daniel Ricciardo finished behind his new team-mate Max Verstappen in Q2 but bounced back by qualifying best of the rest in third place. Red Bull Racing locks out the second row with Verstappen in fourth.
Late improvements by Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel saw the Ferrari duo go fifth and sixth, with Valtteri Bottas in seventh for Williams.
Carlos Sainz Jr and Sergio Perez moved ahead of Fernando Alonso with their final laps to qualify eighth and ninth. Alonso gave McLaren its first Q3 appearance with Honda power and was 10th.
Nico Hulkenberg just missed out on a spot in Q3 and was eliminated in 11th place, with Jenson Button next up in the Q2 drop-one for McLaren. Daniil Kvyat couldn’t match his new Toro Rosso team-mate and was 13th.
Romain Grosjean failed to improve on his final lap and was 14th, with Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Gutierrez rounding out the results in the second session.
Jolyon Palmer was the first driver to be eliminated in the first segment of qualifying after a late improvement from Button dropped him to 17th.
Felipe Massa was a surprise addition to the Q1 drop-zone in 18th. The Williams driver was in the pits when the chequered flag emerged and fell down the order as others improved.
The Sauber duo of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr were next up, while the Manors of Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto will complete Sunday’s grid.
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