Mercedes’ Hamilton rebounds with dominant pole in Barcelona, Rosberg second best in qualifying; Ricciardo grabs P3 for surging Red Bull
After a run of tough luck that saw him playing second fiddle to his streaking Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton regained a measure of momentum with a dominant pole in Saturday qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. Bedeviled by gremlins in his last two quali efforts, Hamilton’s Silver Arrows had no issues as he dusted off his points-leading rival Nico Rosberg by an impressive quarter of a second. But Hamilton must covert his P1 start into victory to begin to claw back an advantage on Rosberg, who has won all four races so far in 2016 and a stunning seven in a row dating to last season. If the defending champ can have a clean run to victory tomorrow he might be able to get back into Rosberg’s head and begin working on undermining the German’s heretofore unflappable confidence just as he has done in the past.
Team Red Bull not only made the biggest news with a huge personnel shakeup during the fortnight between the last race in Russia but also seemed to confirm that their chassis is improving by leaps and bounds. Red Bull made the dramatic move of promoting teen sensation Max Verstappen from their junior Toro Rosso team and demoting the controversial Daniil Kvyat back down to Toro Rosso, from whence he originally came. Perhaps eyeing a future where other powerhouses like Ferrari might come courting the Dutch wunderkind, Red Bull made sure to lock him up in one of their premier seats for the foreseeable future. But coming as it did after Kvyat had two race-altering incidents with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in the prior two contests the timing did seem a bit like a rebuke to the Russian. Regardless, Red Bull were all smiles after seeing Ricciardo grab P3 on the last lap of Q3 with Verstappen also coming in at a very competitive P4 in his first outing in earnest in his hot new ride.
The improved performance of Red Bull’s RB12 spelled bad news for Ferrari, as Kimi Raikkonen was pushed back to P5 and Sebastian Vettel to P6. Both drivers seemed to have trouble keeping the rear end of the SF16-H from stepping out, which cost them when trying to set a truly elite lap. Williams also had issues and not only with their overall performance. While Valtteri Bottas managed to take an OK P7 his veteran teammate Felipe Massa was hobbled by dubious strategy calls that saw him sitting in the pits unable to escape P1 as time ran out in the opening session. Massa will start a lowly P18 come Sunday.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz had a good run for Toro Rosso in from of the home crowd at P7 ( by way of comparison the whipsawed Kvyat could do no better than P13 on his unhappy return to the junior team). Sergio Perez was again game for Force India in P9 while Spaniard Fernando Alonso also thrilled his countrymen by getting the McLaren into Q3 for the first time this year with a P10. With the improvement of the Force India and the McLaren chassis and the seeming stagnation of Williams and Ferrari grabbing good points is getting ever more competitive even as it seems that it is now Red Bull that poses the most serious threat to Mercedes dominance. If that ends up being the case look for the Maranello pressure cooker to really start boiling over and heads at Ferrari to start rolling.
Top 10 qualifiers in Spain:
| POS. | NO. | DRIVER | TEAM | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | LEWIS HAMILTON | MERCEDES | 1:23.214 | 1:22.159 | 1:22.000 | 13 |
| 2 | 6 | NICO ROSBERG | MERCEDES | 1:23.002 | 1:22.759 | 1:22.280 | 12 |
| 3 | 3 | DANIEL RICCIARDO | RED BULL RACING | 1:23.749 | 1:23.585 | 1:22.680 | 12 |
| 4 | 33 | MAX VERSTAPPEN | RED BULL RACING | 1:23.578 | 1:23.178 | 1:23.087 | 12 |
| 5 | 7 | KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN | FERRARI | 1:23.796 | 1:23.504 | 1:23.113 | 14 |
| 6 | 5 | SEBASTIAN VETTEL | FERRARI | 1:24.124 | 1:23.688 | 1:23.334 | 12 |
| 7 | 77 | VALTTERI BOTTAS | WILLIAMS | 1:24.251 | 1:24.023 | 1:23.522 | 12 |
| 8 | 55 | CARLOS SAINZ | TORO ROSSO | 1:24.496 | 1:24.077 | 1:23.643 | 12 |
| 9 | 11 | SERGIO PEREZ | FORCE INDIA | 1:24.698 | 1:24.003 | 1:23.782 | 16 |
| 10 | 14 | FERNANDO ALONSO | MCLAREN | 1:24.578 | 1:24.192 | 1:23.981 | 12 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on NBC Sports tomorrow starting at 8AM Eastern here in the States. Will Hamilton be able to start challenging for another title in earnest or will Rosberg nab his eighth victory in a row? Or will a Red Bull upset Mercedes’ best laid plans by taking victory? Hope to see you then to find out!