Hamilton Continues To Dominate; Wins Spanish Pole

BARCELONA, Spain- Many thought that when the formula one world championship was going to return to Europe, many teams could get closer to Mercedes, who had dominated the competition. But following Saturday’s qualifying session at the Circuit de Catalunya, for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, it was Lewis Hamilton and his silver arrows which did not only dominated, but improved even more, clocking a final session 1:25:232 fastest time, claiming his fourth pole of the last five races. Teammate Nico Rosberg finished in second, locking out a Mercedes front row, while Daniel Riccairdo took third for Red Bull.

“It has been a tough day”, Hamilton said afterwards. “Nico (Rosberg) has been driving really well, and I did not know if I was going to get it”.

The opening session had excitement right from the beginning, as Pastor Maldonado crashed his Lotus at turn nine, eliminating the Venezuelan, and bringing out a red flag for five minutes while the car was pulled away by marshalls. Adrian Sutil was one of the surprises of this session, as the German just failed to advance, as his countryman Rosberg managed to record the fastest time.

The second session had Rosberg continue with the fastest time, but another Mercedes powered car, driven by Dane Kevin Magnussen, retired early in the period with a failed power unit. Fernando Alonso barely survived the session by taking tenth and giving his Spanish fans a big scare in the process.

In the final session, Sebastian Vettel, who had a horrible weekend by not even taking part in Friday’s practice session, pulled off the track early complaining of no drive in his car. This brought out the red flag for the second and last time of the day making it the worse start for the defending champion since 2008. With only a couple of minutes to go, only four drivers had completed flying laps, and the last six drivers suddenly came out onto the track, but all of them could not match Hamilton final time, which was nearly a full second ahead of third place Riccairdo.

For the rest of the grid, Vallteri Bottas had a fine qualifying day, taking fourth in his Williams, while Roamain Grosjean took fifth in his best qualifying finish this year. Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso took sixth and seventh, respectively, while Jenson Button finished his McLaren in eighth. Felipe Massa and Vettel rounded out the top ten.

Although Hamilton dominated, the Briton still is very surprised by the situation.

 “I had to eeck out everything I had, but I just came out this weekend and I did not know where I was going to be and all the work and the development on how our car was going to get ready. It is just flattering and the performance of the team is great and I am so happy to have done it.” He concluded.