Written by Tanishka Vashee, Edited by Aiden Hover
The story in Free Practice
The race weekend began with a flyer from Valtteri Bottas as the Finn claimed the top spot in Free Practice 1. The session ground to a halt after Nikita Mazepin spun and was red-flagged a second time as Robert Kubica, driving the Alfa-Romeo in place of Kimi Raikonnen, beached the veteran Finn’s car in the gravel trap.
Free Practice 2 finished with a surprise as Charles Leclerc secured the third fastest time behind the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Alpine also had a great session with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso finishing 4th and 5th. Just behind the Renault-powered Alpines were the two Honda-powered AlphaTauri cars. Pierre Gasly finished the session in a strong 6th with his teammate, Japanese wunderkind Yuki Tsunoda finishing 7th overall.
Max Verstappen topped the final Free Practice session, with a time two-tenths ahead of Hamilton. The Ferraris, having shown their true pace in FP2, split the Mercedes pair by securing 3rd and 4th.
Results after Qualifying
Following the end of qualifying, Lewis Hamilton cheered down the radio, “That was hard work, we did it guys!” as he claimed his 100th pole position. He will be joined on the front row by Max Verstappen with his teammate, Valtteri Bottas just behind.
Further down the grid, George Russell made it to Q2, outperforming Yuki Tsunoda who will be starting 16th. Yuki will be followed by Kimi Raikkonen, Mick Schumacher, Nicholas Latifi, and at the bottom of the table is the young Russian driver, Nikita Mazepin.
Lance Stroll was out in Q2 followed by Pierre Gasly who will be starting 11th. Lance’s teammate, the four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will be starting 13th followed by Alfa-Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi.
Q3, as stated by Estaban Ocon’s engineer, was a game of who jumps first. Hamilton emerged victorious with his blazing lap time of 1:16.741 beating out title rival Verstappen and teammate Bottas. Leclerc impressed with his P4, the third time in four qualifying sessions. Estaban Ocon will be starting P5 while his teammate Fernando starts down in P10. Carlos Sainz claimed P6, followed by Daniel Ricciardo in P7 and Sergio Perez in P8. Lando Norris, who went fastest in Q1, could only manage a disappointing P9.
Be sure not to miss the race tomorrow as the Spanish Grand Prix is set to get under away at 2pm BST.
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