Lewis Hamilton will start on pole position in Spain after securing McLaren’s 150th pole, with a dominant gap to second place of over half a second.
Surprisingly Pastor Maldonado will start second behind the McLaren. A wonderful lap in the Williams handed the Venezuelan his highest grid position yet.
Home favourite Fernando Alonso starts third ahead of of the two Lotus’s of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen respectively.
A few cars, Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher, failed to set times as they opted to instead save tyres whilst Kamui Kobayashi will start tenth after he stopped on track at the end of the second session with a hydrualic issue and therefore couldn’t set a timed lap in Q3.
Jenson Button struggled with his tyres and will start 11th after first complaining of oversteer then understeer which only confused him and the team further.
Mark Webber also struggled and could only manage the 12th quickest lap after being knocked out of the top ten in the final few seconds of Q2.
Whilst Pastor Maldonado starts second, his team-mate Bruno Senna failed to escape Q1 after spinning his Williams into the gravel trap.
Narain Karthikeyan will start the race in 24th at the discretion of the stewards after he failed to set a timed lap within 107% of the quickest time in the first session.
2012 Spanish GP Qualifying Results:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Q1 Time | Q2 Time | Q3 Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:23.850 | 1:22.884 | No Time |
| 12. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:23.592 | 1:22.977 | |
| 01. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 1:22.583 | 1:22.485 | 1:21.707 |
| 11. | J. Button | McLaren | 1:23.510 | 1:22.944 | |
| 18. | B. Senna | Williams | 1:24.981 | ||
| 03. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:23.276 | 1:22.862 | 1:22.302 |
| 17. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 1:23.886 | 1:23.444 | |
| 14. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:23.720 | 1:23.177 | |
| 02. | P. Maldonado | Williams | 1:23.380 | 1:22.105 | 1:22.285 |
| 10. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 1:23.386 | 1:22.897 | No Time |
| 06. | S. Perez | Sauber | 1:24.261 | 1:22.773 | 1:22.533 |
| 19. | V. Petrov | Caterham | 1:25.277 | ||
| 05. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 1:23.406 | 1:22.856 | 1:22.487 |
| 09. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:23.757 | 1:22.904 | No Time |
| 07. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:23.370 | 1:22.882 | 1:23.005 |
| 04. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 1:23.248 | 1:22.667 | 1:22.424 |
| 15. | J. Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1:24.362 | 1:23.265 | |
| 13. | P. di Resta | Force India | 1:23.852 | 1:23.125 | |
| 23. | P. de la Rosa | HRT | 1:27.555 | ||
| 16. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1:23.906 | 1:23.442 | |
| 20. | H. Kovalainen | Caterham | 1:25.507 | ||
| 21. | C. Pic | Marussia | 1:26.582 | ||
| 22. | T. Glock | Marussia | 1:27.032 | ||
| 24. | N. Karthikeyan | HRT | 1:31.122 | ||
| Q1 107% Time: | 1:28.363 | ||||
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