Perez followed up his Q1 exit in Monaco with another compromised qualifying session en route to 11th, having run off-track at Turn 5 during Q2, while Russell could do no more than 12th after banging wheels with Hamilton down the start/finish straight as the Mercedes pair converged on the racing line. Pierre Gasly took fourth in another strong showing for Alpine, albeit with stewards’ investigations hanging over him after he got in the way of rival cars, as Hamilton and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the top six positions.Įsteban Ocon put the other Alpine seventh, with Nico Hulkenberg leading Haas’ charge in eighth, Fernando Alonso ninth after running out of sequence with the rest of the field in Q3, and McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri 10th. That included Charles Leclerc dropping out of the Q1 phase amid car complaints, the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez falling at the second qualifying hurdle after a trip through the gravel, and George Russell also exiting in Q2 after a bizarre incident with team mate Lewis Hamilton. Indeed, having pumped in an initial lap of 1m 12.272s in the pole shootout, Verstappen was afforded the luxury of backing off from his second attempt and still finished almost half a second up on home hero Sainz and Norris, who emerged as his nearest rivals in an action-packed session. Verstappen, who won the event in 20 but has never started it from the front of the grid, converted his practice clean sweep into P1 for Sunday’s race with a dominant performance across the grid-deciding hour.

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen charged to his first-ever Spanish Grand Prix pole position by comfortably getting the better of Ferrari rival Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris in Saturday’s qualifying session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

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