Barcelona: A supremely-relaxed Lewis Hamilton delivered when it mattered on Saturday by producing a lap of searing speed to claim his fourth pole position of the season as Mercedes swept the front row for Sunday’s Formula One Spanish Grand Prix.
In the final seconds of a closely-fought qualifying session, the 2008 world champion clocked a majestic fastest lap in one minute and 25.232 seconds to outpace team mate Nico Rosberg by 0.168 seconds.
Rosberg had been fastest in the morning’s final free practice session and led the way through both Q1 and Q2 before Hamilton found the extra pace required.
It was his first pole in Spain and the 35th of his career. Only Vettel on 45 poles, Ayrton Senna on 65 and Michael Schumacher on 68 have claimed more.
“It’s been a tough day,” said Hamilton. “Nico has been driving really well through P3 and qualifying, so I didn’t know if I could get it. At the end, I had to eke out everything and more from the car.”
His friend and team mate Rosberg did nothing to hide his feelings.
“Yes, for me, it’s very disappointing,” he said. “I don’t particularly enjoy coming second to Lewis. In the end, it was a good lap. Lewis just did a better job, but it’s still all to play for tomorrow.”
On a track where eight of the last 10 races have been won from pole and 21 of the last 23 from the front row, Hamilton’s success made him favourite to extend his winning streak to four in a row and take over as championship leader from Rosberg.
Daniel Ricciardo took third on the grid for Red Bull after his team-mate and defending four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel qualified only 10th after suffering a drive failure early in the final session.
Valtteri Bottas qualified fourth for a resurgent Williams ahead of Romain Grosjean of Lotus and Kimi Raikkonen in the leading Ferrari. Fernando Alonso was seventh in the second Ferrari, Jenson Button was eighth for McLaren and Felipe Massa ninth in the second Williams ahead of Vettel.
Force India miss top-10
Borth Force India drivers failed to make Q3 for the first time this season after Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez set the 11th and 12th fastest times, respectively. (AFP)
