Lewis Hamilton stole the headlines on Saturday, May 13, as he beat Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel by five-hundredths of a second to claim pole position, the 64th of career, at the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix. The Brit had a disappointing race in Russia, which saw him finish fourth and he will be looking to make the most of his pole position in Spain as he looks to gain more points and take control of the drivers' championship.
While it was the regulars in Hamilton, Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen who finished in the top four, there was an inspired performance from the home favourite as Fernando Alonso managed to qualify for the seventh position. The Spaniard has been struggling a lot with his McLaren car and after not yet completing a race this season, he will be hoping that his seventh place finish can get him his first points of the season.
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"I felt confident. We knew we needed to put a perfect lap together and today was one of those days when everything went our way. I have a good feeling for tomorrow. Some weekends everything start wrong and then go right and I had that feeling yesterday and I feel tomorrow everything will be OK," The Guardian quoted Alonso as saying.
After that poor showing in Russia, Hamilton felt that the team has taken a strong step forward and said his car is in a much better shape than in the last race. The three-time champion is expecting a tough race and his time of 1min 19.149sec in Q3, his only lap, was enough to claim a top spot.
Check out the highlights from the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix qualifying.
"It is going to be a tough race. You see how close it is between us and it is a long run down to turn one, so a good start is important. We have worked hard on them. Positioning can help a lot here and being on the clean side of the grid is usually an advantage and then the race will be about looking after the tyres," Hamilton said.
As for Vettel, the fact that the German even took part in qualifying yesterday was a big deal as his Ferrari car had a water leak after final practice session and they had to quickly to fit a new engine to his car. He still managed to put up a decent time in qualifying and is now hoping for a perfect start as he looks to maintain his lead in the drivers' championship points standing.
The Red Bull cars once again qualified in fifth and sixth with last year's Spanish Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen ahead of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo. The two Red Bulls have always qualified behind the top four this season and with teams making a lot of upgrades ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, they will be hoping for a better finish this time around.
Williams Felipe Massa continued his consistent performance this season in Formula One as he once again managed a top ten finish. The former Ferrari driver qualified in ninth position, splitting the Force India team of Sergio Perez in eighth and Esteban Ocon in tenth.
Where to watch
The 2017 Spanish Grand Prix is set to start at 2:00pm local time, 5:30pm IST and 8:00am EST.
TV and live streaming information
Australia: TV: Ten HD. Live Streaming: Ten Play.
India: TV: Star Sports SelectHD2. Live Streaming: Hotstar.
UK: TV: Sky Sports F1. Live Streaming: Watch Sky Sports.
USA: TV: NBCSN. Live Streaming: NBC Sports Live.
Asia: TV: Fox Sports. Live Streaming: Fox Sports Play.
