Lewis Hamilton claimed his fourth pole position of the season and will start the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg on the front row. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was the quickest car behind the Mercedes and will start ahead of Valteri Bottas on the second row. Sebastien Grosjean claimed Lotus' best result in qualifying this season after qualifying fifth but it was a disappointing day for Sebastien Vettel who surprisingly could only manage to qualify 10th. Mercedes continue to dominate but the battle between Hamilton and Rosberg only becomes more intriguing.
My Opinion:
Mercedes - Hamilton (Pole), Rosberg (2nd). Another perfect day of qualifying for Mercedes who locked out the front row for the Spanish GP. Hamilton took his fourth pole position of the season whilst Rosberg qualified right behind him in second. I would expect Hamilton to win from pole but I'm sure Rosberg will push him all the way. A top two finish is looking good for the team in tomorrow's race.
Red Bull - Ricciardo (3rd), Vettel (10th, starts15th). It was a mixed bag for Red Bull who will be pleased to see Ricciardo right behind the Mercedes but extremely disappointed with how Vettel got on after only managing 10th. It gets worse for Vettel who has to take a five place penalty which means he will start the race from 15th. Ricciardo should be looking to be on the podium in third whilst Vettel will just be trying to make up as many places as possible.
Force India - Hulkenberg (11th, starts 10th), Perez (12th, starts 11th). Disappointing result for Force India as both cars just missed out on making it through to Q3. Hulkenberg proved to be just that little bit quicker than Perez but it wasn't the result the team were looking for after a decent start to the season. Both cars should be expecting to take home points but anything above 5th may be out of their reach.
Ferrari - Raikkonen (6th), Alonso (7th). Standard result for Ferrari who just can't seem to find that raw pace to challenge Mercedes or Red Bull. Raikkonen was the faster of the two drivers and equalled his best qualifying result with 6th whilst Alonso will start from 7th. Points should be taken from both drivers but I would really like to see them both give a good chase to the leaders if they can keep up.
McLaren - Button (8th), Magnussen (15th, starts 14th). Mixed result for McLaren as only Button made it into Q3. The team are still a long way off from where they wish to be but Button was on good form after qualifying 8th. Magnussen will have to work hard tomorrow after only managing 15th. McLaren are a team who should be taking points away with both cars but I think Button may be the only car to do so here.
Williams - Bottas (4th), Massa (9th). Strong result for Williams as Bottas equalled his best performance of the year, qualifying 4th whilst Massa will start from 9th. Bottas has been very good so far and this is another great chance for him to shine. A podium finish may be possible but to finish in 4th would be a great result. Massa should bring home some more points but may struggle to ascend the order into the top five.
Toro Rosso - Kvyat (13th, starts 12th), Vergne (16th, starts 22nd). Disappointing result for Toro Rosso as both cars failed to progress into Q3. Kvyat was the faster of the two drivers and will start from 12th whilst Vergne will begin the race from the back of the grid after receiving a penalty. I don't think the team will take any points home but if they do, Kvyat is the man who will do it.
Lotus - Grosjean (5th), Maldonado (22nd, starts 21st). Signs of improvement at Lotus. Grosjean managed to produce the teams best qualifying result by an absolute country mile after putting his car 5th on the grid. It demonstrates that there are encouraging signs ahead for the team and it will be very interesting to see if they can convert that great result into a lot of points. However, Maldonado is still really struggling and failed to post a time. He will start on the back row alongside Vergne but all hopes of points from this race lie with Grosjean.
Sauber - Gutierrez (14th, starts 13th), Sutil (17th, starts 16th). Standard set of results for Sauber. Gutierrez proved himself to be faster than Sutil and will start from 13th whereas Sutil starts from 16th. There are faster cars than Suaber in front of them which makes points seem unlikely even though Gutierrez is only three places away.
Marussia - Chilton (18th, starts 17th), Bianchi (19th, starts 18th). Decent day of qualifying for Marussia who saw Chilton oust Bianchi. Chilton will lead the battle of the Marussia and Caterham cars ahead of Bianchi and they should both finish ahead of the Caterham's in the race.
Caterham - Ericsson (20th, starts 19th), Kobayashi (21st, starts 20th). Caterham were the slowest cars on track today but Ericsson equalled his best result with 20th. He will start ahead of Kobayashi who endured his worst qualifying result of the season.
Qualifying Grid and Starting Grid:
Q3
Pole: Hamilton (Mercedes)
2. Rosberg (Mercedes)
3. Ricciardo (Red Bull)
4. Bottas (Williams)
5. Grosjean (Lotus)
6. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
7. Alonso (Ferrari)
8. Button (McLaren)
9. Massa (Williams)
10. Vettel (Red Bull) - 5 place penalty, will start 15th.
Q2
11. Hulkenberg (Force India)
12. Perez (Force India)
13. Kvyat (Toro Rosso)
14. Gutierrez (Sauber)
15. Magnussen (McLaren)
16. Vergne (Toro Rosso) - 10 place penalty, will start 22nd.
Q1
17. Sutil (Sauber)
18. Chilton (Marussia)
19. Bianchi (Marussia)
20. Ericsson (Caterham)
21. Kobayashi (Caterham)
22. Maldonado (Lotus)
Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mattaylott
Feel free to leave a comment below!
No comments:
Post a Comment