Hamilton will start ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

Spanish Grand Prix qualifying results: Hamilton on pole from Verstappen

Cla	Driver	Time	Gap	km/h
1	Lewis Hamilton	1'16.741		218.370
2	Max Verstappen	1'16.777	0.036	218.268
3	Valtteri Bottas	1'16.873	0.132	217.995
4	Charles Leclerc	1'17.510	0.769	216.204
5	Esteban Ocon	1'17.580	0.839	216.009
6	Carlos Sainz Jr.	1'17.620	0.879	215.897
7	Daniel Ricciardo	1'17.622	0.881	215.892
8	Sergio Perez	1'17.701	0.960	215.672
9	Lando Norris	1'18.010	1.269	214.818
10	Fernando Alonso	1'18.147	1.406	214.442
11	Lance Stroll	1'17.974	1.233	214.917
12	Pierre Gasly	1'17.982	1.241	214.895
13	Sebastian Vettel	1'18.079	1.338	214.628
14	Antonio Giovinazzi	1'18.356	1.615	213.870
15	George Russell	1'19.154	2.413	211.713
16	Yuki Tsunoda	1'18.556	1.815	213.325
17	Kimi Raikkonen	1'18.917	2.176	212.349
18	Mick Schumacher	1'19.117	2.376	211.812
19	Nicholas Latifi	1'19.219	2.478	211.540
20	Nikita Mazepin	1'19.807	3.066	209.981
View full results

What happened in Q1?

The first session, when all cars are on track together, was delayed by 10 minutes due to barrier repairs.

Once it got going, Bottas set the early pace at 1m18.005s on medium tyres, 0.085s faster than Verstappen who was using softs. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was third quickest, ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Hamilton, who was a quarter of a second off the pace in sixth.

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McLaren’s Lando Norris, whose first run was ruined by traffic, took P1 at his second attempt with 1m17.821s, which was 0.184s faster than Bottas. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc leapt up to third on a second run, just 0.036s off Bottas’s time.

Falling at the first hurdle were AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (who ran wide on what should’ve been his fastest lap), Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, Mick Schumacher (Haas), Nicholas Latifi (who lost part of his Williams’ underside after running wide at Turn 9) and the second Haas of Nikita Mazepin.

Spanish Grand Prix Q1 results: Norris fastest from Bottas

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Lando Norris	6	1'17.821			215.340
2	Valtteri Bottas	4	1'18.005	0.184	0.184	214.832
3	Charles Leclerc	6	1'18.041	0.220	0.036	214.733
4	Max Verstappen	5	1'18.090	0.269	0.049	214.598
5	Pierre Gasly	3	1'18.190	0.369	0.100	214.324
6	Sergio Perez	6	1'18.203	0.382	0.013	214.288
7	Carlos Sainz Jr.	3	1'18.205	0.384	0.002	214.282
8	Lance Stroll	6	1'18.241	0.420	0.036	214.184
9	Lewis Hamilton	7	1'18.245	0.424	0.004	214.173
10	Daniel Ricciardo	3	1'18.264	0.443	0.019	214.121
11	Esteban Ocon	3	1'18.281	0.460	0.017	214.074
12	Fernando Alonso	6	1'18.281	0.460	0.000	214.074
13	Sebastian Vettel	6	1'18.289	0.468	0.008	214.053
14	George Russell	8	1'18.445	0.624	0.156	213.627
15	Antonio Giovinazzi	6	1'18.549	0.728	0.104	213.344
16	Yuki Tsunoda	6	1'18.556	0.735	0.007	213.325
17	Kimi Raikkonen	6	1'18.917	1.096	0.361	212.349
18	Mick Schumacher	9	1'19.117	1.296	0.200	211.812
19	Nicholas Latifi	9	1'19.219	1.398	0.102	211.540
20	Nikita Mazepin	9	1'19.807	1.986	0.588	209.981
View full results

What happened in Q2?

In Q2, the pole position-hunting protagonists eschewed the usual practice of running medium tyre – as they wanted to save them for the race, so the top-10 cars will all start the race on softs.

Verstappen unleashed the true pace of his Red Bull, producing a lap of 1m16.922s that was almost half a second clear of Bottas after the first runs. Hamilton was 0.71s off in third, and he had Norris right behind him.

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Everyone apart from Verstappen ran again, with both Mercedes improving their times – Bottas getting to within 0.22s of the pace, with Hamilton close behind him despite using a set of tyres he’d scrubbed-in during Q1. Sainz jumped up for fourth, ahead of Perez.

Knocked out at this point were Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Gasly, the second Aston of Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and George Russell (Williams, who’d run out of fresh soft tyres).

Spanish Grand Prix Q2 results: Verstappen fastest from Bottas

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen	3	1'16.922			217.857
2	Valtteri Bottas	6	1'17.142	0.220	0.220	217.235
3	Lewis Hamilton	6	1'17.166	0.244	0.024	217.168
4	Carlos Sainz Jr.	6	1'17.656	0.734	0.490	215.797
5	Sergio Perez	6	1'17.669	0.747	0.013	215.761
6	Lando Norris	5	1'17.696	0.774	0.027	215.686
7	Charles Leclerc	6	1'17.717	0.795	0.021	215.628
8	Daniel Ricciardo	6	1'17.719	0.797	0.002	215.622
9	Esteban Ocon	6	1'17.743	0.821	0.024	215.556
10	Fernando Alonso	5	1'17.966	1.044	0.223	214.939
11	Lance Stroll	6	1'17.974	1.052	0.008	214.917
12	Pierre Gasly	6	1'17.982	1.060	0.008	214.895
13	Sebastian Vettel	6	1'18.079	1.157	0.097	214.628
14	Antonio Giovinazzi	6	1'18.356	1.434	0.277	213.870
15	George Russell	3	1'19.154	2.232	0.798	211.713
View full results

What happened in Q3?

In the top-10 shootout, Hamilton set the bar at 1m16.741s, just missing yellow flags for Perez spinning at Turn 13 after he dipped his tyres into the gravel on turn-in.

Verstappen was second fastest, 0.036s down, with Bottas a further tenth back in third. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was best of the rest, ahead of Sainz and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.

On the final runs, Hamilton had a big moment at the final chicane and didn’t improve, but neither did Verstappen nor Bottas, so Hamilton’s 100^th career pole was confirmed.

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Leclerc improved on his second run to jump up to fourth, ahead of Ocon, Sainz, Ricciardo, Perez, Norris and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso.

Spanish Grand Prix Q3 results: Hamilton takes pole

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Lewis Hamilton	6	1'16.741			218.370
2	Max Verstappen	6	1'16.777	0.036	0.036	218.268
3	Valtteri Bottas	6	1'16.873	0.132	0.096	217.995
4	Charles Leclerc	6	1'17.510	0.769	0.637	216.204
5	Esteban Ocon	6	1'17.580	0.839	0.070	216.009
6	Carlos Sainz Jr.	6	1'17.620	0.879	0.040	215.897
7	Daniel Ricciardo	5	1'17.622	0.881	0.002	215.892
8	Sergio Perez	5	1'17.701	0.960	0.079	215.672
9	Lando Norris	6	1'18.010	1.269	0.309	214.818
10	Fernando Alonso	6	1'18.147	1.406	0.137	214.442
View full results