A closely fought battle saw less than two-tenths of a second separate the drivers in the final Q3 session, with Hamilton edging out his teammate with a time of 1:25.232. Rosberg’s time was 1:25.400. This was Hamilton’s fourth pole position of the season, while for Rosberg it was his second front row start.
Fifth and sixth spots went to Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen, respectively. Local favorite Fernando Alonso of Ferrari could only manage the seventh spot and filling out eighth and ninth spots were McLaren’s Jenson Button and Williams’s Felipe Massa, respectively.
There weren’t any major dramas apart from Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado’s run-in with a wall at the start of the day. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel also had car trouble late in the day and couldn’t finish Q3. Despite this, he still managed to get the 10th spot on the grid.
Weather conditions at the Spanish GP’s Circuit de Catalunya remained stable, with ambient temperatures reaching 82 degrees F (28 degrees C) and track temps reaching as high as 95 degrees F (35 degrees C). The current weather forecast for tomorrow’s race is partly cloudy skies and a peak temperature of 77 degrees F (25 degrees C).
Going into tomorrow’s race, Nico Rosberg leads the Drivers’ Championship with 79 points, with Lewis Hamilton just 4 points behind in second. Fernando Alonso sits in third with 41 points. In the Constructors’ Championship, Mercedes AMG leads with 154 points followed by Red Bull Racing on 57 and Force India on 54.
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