Valtteri Bottas could only muster a third place start for tomorrow's Spanish Grand Prix, which he considers a outcome of the engine change undertaken earlier in the day.
Lewis Hamilton took pole at the Spanish Grand Prix but Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel stopped Mercedes locking out the front row in Barcelona for a fifth successive year. Which augers well for the race.
Kimi Raikkonen was third for Ferrari, three-tenths off the pace, ahead of his teammate and championship leader Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel has a nine-point lead over Hamilton in the drivers' standings, and he is 23 points in front of Bottas. I wasn't too happy, but I can feel the vehicle is quick so that is good.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo followed, while Fernando Alonso produced a remarkable performance and will start seventh on home soil.
Russian Grand Prix victor Valtteri Bottas and teammate to Vettel, Raikkonen complete the second row of the grid with the two Red Bull's of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, who are still struggling to make significant gains on the top two manufacturers, locked out row three.
"OK, you can push", came the eventual radio message from the pit wall as he set the fastest lap of the session before Hamilton and Raikkonen went quicker. "It was very close, well done to Lewis", he said.
"I've done some good things from P3 before".
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Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, was delighted to see Hamilton finish ahead of Vettel after a tense qualifying session.
They displayed intimidating pace during qualifying in Russian Federation, giving the Italian outfit its first one-two race start since 2008.
Ferrari likewise has made some upgrades of its own, and we should see some intense action during the Spanish Grand Prix race proper. He has been largely imperious in Spain, topping two of the three practice sessions, and all three phases of qualifying, too.
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"A big thank you to the team, because we had to change the engine last minute and the vehicle was just about finished, so today is really for the mechanics - also from Kimi's auto that helped out, grazie", he said.
It is the first time he and McLaren-Honda have reached Q3 this season and they rightly celebrated, although that a team of such rich heritage did so shows how low their expectations have sunk. The British driver had also been quickest in the first two practice sessions but Ferrari improved for the final run on Saturday morning, with Raikkonen and Vettel leading the way.
"It's the third longest run down to turn one so it's going to be important to get a good start".
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