Lewis Hamilton takes F1 Spanish GP pole as Mercedes dominance continues

Delivering with metronomic precision to take pole for the Spanish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton cycled through the gears with a skill honed over 13 seasons in Formula One. The world champion at 35 is an elder statesmen of the sport now and after putting in yet another dominant performance in Barcelona, revealed his touch, his judgment and his knowledge of self have all improved with age, contributing to building what he described as “a completely different machine” to the 22-year-old who made his debut in 2007.

Hamilton’s choice of words was wholly apt. He is F1’s own Terminator in qualifying: fearsome, untouchable, unstoppable. He has four poles from six races this season and took the top spot at the Circuit de Catalunya, with another performance of such inch-perfect precision that little more might be expected were he an automaton running on rails.

He beat his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas into second place as the team demonstrated once more they are completely dominant in the single-lap discipline this season. Hamilton has extended his record of 92 poles and has now claimed another F1 record as the first driver to reach 150 front row starts.

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“I am a lot older now, the things I know now I didn’t know when I was 22,” he said when considering his dominance in qualifying. “I naturally had raw ability back then but no control and understanding of who I really was, what made me tick, what was good to do or not good to do. I am a completely different machine today. My consistency was pretty good in my first year but it has got better over these last five or six years. That has been my main strength.”

Bottas was left once more considering what he must do to reach such consistency and beat his teammate. Having led every session, on his first hot run in Q3 Hamilton set the benchmark with a time of 1min 15.584sec, five-hundredths of a second in front of Bottas. Hamilton had nailed the final sector with flair and that made the difference. On their final laps Bottas looked for every inch but could not find enough to match his teammate and with neither driver improving, Hamilton had done enough again. He had been pushed and yet as has been the case so often this season had a tiny margin that Bottas could not bridge.

Yet it must be hoped the race can still offer a decent fight, even given how hard overtaking is in Barcelona. Max Verstappen was in third for Red Bull, seven-tenths back but will be optimistic he can compete strongly on race day as he did to win the last round at Silverstone. That victory relaunched his title challenge and he now trails Hamilton by 30 points and is four ahead of Bottas.

Last week both Mercedes drivers had a comfortable pace advantage in qualifying but during the race suffered with severe tyre blistering on the softer compound of tyres. Verstappen went on to win there and although the harder rubber is being used in Barcelona, the temperatures remain high.

Hamilton has pointedly noted that there was no sign of tyre problems before the race at Silverstone and was cautious as to how they might yet perform on Sunday. Red Bull also looked very strong on long-run pace in practice, focusing once more on maximising their chances to challenge over the distance. Verstappen will harbour hopes that once more he can do so but this week there will be no counter tyre strategy for Red Bull to run as they did at Silverstone. All the leading teams set their best times on the same soft tyres.

With the Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff saying on Friday he remained undecided about whether he would stay in F1, Hamilton also confirmed that Wolff’s decision would not influence his own, with his contract with Mercedes ending this year. The pair both joined Mercedes in 2013 and have grown very close. The British driver had previously said he would take Wolff’s position into account when considering his own future.

“It’s a team of almost 2,000 people, it’s not down to one individual, so that will not determine whether or not I will stay,” Hamilton said. “I have been part of growing with this team and the strength is there through and through, it’s not just one individual. But I hope he stays. I will be supportive of whatever he decides to do.”

Sergio Pérez was in fourth for Racing Point with his teammate Lance Stroll in fifth. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was ninth, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel’s travails continued however, knocked out again in Q2 in 11th. Alexander Albon was sixth for Red Bull. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris were in seventh and eighth, with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly in 10th.

Renault’s Esteban Ocon took a heavy crash in the last minutes of final practice. The driver was unhurt and the team managed to repair the car and he finished in 15th. Kimi Raikkonen made it into Q2 for the first time this season finishing in 14th. Daniil Kvyat was in 12th for AlphaTauri with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo in 13th.

Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were in 16th and 17th for Haas. George Russell was in 18th in front of his Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi, with Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi in 20th.