8
Valtteri Bottas has taken pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix, boasting a gap of over six-tenths of a second to teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas takes his third consecutive pole position, posting a 1:15.406 on his first run. Although the drivers went out for a second attempt, none of the top four could improve.
As was expected after the final practice session this morning, Ferrari couldn't get close to the Silver Arrows, missing a lot of time in the final sector.
Sebastian Vettel will start the race from third on the grid, but was over eight-tenths down on Bottas' lap. He'll share the second row with Max Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc couldn't find the time to get his car onto the second row, and will line up directly behind his teammate on Sunday's grid.
Haas managed to beat Red Bull on the timesheets in FP3, and got close to being in front of one of the Red Bull cars in qualifying.
Pierre Gasly was sixth, two-tenths ahead of Romain Grosjean. Magnussen too was narrowly behind, with just one-hundredth of a second separating the Haas duo.
Daniil Kvyat managed to claim ninth place on the grid, and will be joined on the fifth row by Lando Norris, who qualified 11th, but is bumped up one position due to a three-place grid penalty for Daniel Ricciardo.
Lance Stroll once again failed to progress from the first stage of qualifying, joining Nico Hulkenberg, Antonio Giovinazzi and the two Williams' in the Q1 drop zone.
Hulkenberg locked up during Q1 and touched the barrier at Turn 4, which took off his front wing. Despite getting back onto the circuit, the German couldn't improve and was knocked out.
Sergio Perez managed to make it out of Q1, but will line up in 15th place for the start of Sunday's Grand Prix, behind Alexander Albon and Kimi Raikkonen.
Local favourite Carlos Sainz couldn't progress into Q3, but will start from 12th after Ricciardo's penalty is applied.
Circuit de Catalunya - 11 May 2019
Binotto: season start not a drama. You mounted engine spec b and you are slower than before, the car can even beat Hamilton's lap when he went out the kerbs. Binotto is not good in the role of team principal, he should have focused on the engineer side like the previous years.
I would hold judgement on that for atleast a season. That said the gap to Mercedes is quite big and it's all down to last sector and that too on a circuit that isn't that long. I don't think the fix for this is going to be so easy and wouldn't be coming soon.
Another good session from Bottas, and RBH looks pretty strong around here. This could be a good race.
Bottas had the edge. But I don't think he was 0.6 faster. I don't think Lewis' battery issues were just an excuse. Looking forward to a close race tomorrow
On the other end of the grid.... Kubica is beaten by 1,2 sec by Russell. It's a shame to see Kubica this uncompetitive, the years away and the injury has slowed him down. I do hold Russell in high regard, he beat Norris and Albon in F2, and won GP3 and F2 in his rookie years (something that Leclerc also did), so Kubica is up against a top driver but the gaps in quali and race is just too big. Rumors that Kubica will be replaced by Latifi (but does he have enough points for a super license?). Don't know about Latifi, but Kub should be replaced.
Haas looks good and so do RIC and KVY. Probably not much that can account for HAMs lack pace besides some type of issue
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Kean
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On the other end of the grid.... Kubica is beaten by 1,2 sec by Russell. It's a shame to see Kubica this uncompetitive, the years away and the injury has slowed him down. I do hold Russell in high regard, he beat Norris and Albon in F2, and won GP3 and F2 in his rookie years (something that Lecle... [Read more]