Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/679878
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 MAY 2016 53 Sport FORMULA 1 Hamilton takes Spanish pole as Red Bull humble Ferrari LEWIS Hamilton took an em- phatic pole position in Barce- lona yesterday after an intense qualif ying battle with Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. In a session when much had been expected of Ferrari, the red cars were dramatically upstaged by the Red Bulls of Daniel Ric- ciardo and his new team mate Max Verstappen. Kimi Raikkonen was fifth in the leading scarlet car, im- mediately ahead of team mate Sebastian Vettel. Then came Williams' Valtteri Bottas, Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz and Force India's Sergio Perez. Fernando Alonso completed the top ten as McLaren made Q3 for the first time since 2014. In Q1, after making only one run apiece the Mercedes were fastest, Rosberg ahead of Ham- ilton, with the Ferraris (Raik- konen, Vettel) behind the Red Bulls (Verstappen, Ricciardo), both of those teams also con- serving rubber. The big surprise was that Fe- lipe Massa failed to get through to Q2 after an apparent timing error from Williams left him 18th, just behind Jolyon Palmer who had improved to a respecta- ble three tenths off Renault team mate Kevin Magnussen. The other four who failed to get through were Marcus Erics- son and Felipe Nasr in their Sau- bers, and the Manors of Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto. Hamilton smashed Rosberg by six-tenths in Q2, as he improved by 1.1s while his team mate was only three-tenths faster than he had been in Q1. Verstappen continued to head Ricciardo and Vettel was only fourth, un- til Raikkonen made amends for a poor first run by squeezing ahead of his team mate, as then did Ricciardo too. Nico Hulkenberg was the first faller for Force India, a tenth off Alonso's time which gave McLaren their first Q3 of the season by a mere 0.011s. Jenson Button in the second MP4-31 was 12th ahead of Daniil Kv yat's Toro Rosso, and the Haas cars of Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez, which sandwiched Magnussen's Renault. Hamilton looked as if he was going to carry on where he left off in Q3, until he locked up and ran wide at Turn 10 in the final sector on his first run, handing first place to Rosberg with 1m 22.475s - and second to the sen- sational Verstappen, whose 1m 23.203s pipped his 1m 23.277s. Thus Hamilton had it all to do on his final run. He redeemed himself with a superb 1m 22.000s to beat an improving Rosberg to pole by 0.280s. He described himself as very happy, and very grateful to Mercedes for a car which worked well and reliably. Behind them, Ricciardo got it together when it mattered with a brilliant 1m 22.680s to oust his upstart new team mate, who nevertheless impressed greatly with 1m 23.087s for fourth. The session was a disaster for Ferrari, with Raikkonen only fifth on 1m 23.113s and Vettel sixth on 1m 23.334s. Both SF16- Hs looked a handful. Bottas salvaged seventh for Williams with 1m 23.522s as Sainz was Spain's top dog with 1m 23.643s for Toro Rosso. That left the fifth row to Perez's Force India on 1m 23.782s, and Alon- so's McLaren on 1m 23.981s. Thus the provisional grid will line up: Hamilton, Rosberg; Ric- ciardo, Verstappen; Raikkonen, Vettel; Bottas, Sainz; Perez, Alonso; Hulkenberg, Button; Kv yat, Grosjean; Magnussen, Gutierrez; Palmer, Massa; Erics- son, Nasr; Wehrlein, Haryanto. (L to R): Nico Rosberg (GER) Mercedes AMG F1, pole sitter Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 and Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Red Bull Racing celebrate in parc ferme Qualifying results - 2016 Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix Pos. Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps 1. L. Hamilton Mercedes 01:23.214 01:22.159 01:22.000 13 2. N. Rosberg Mercedes 01:23.002 01:22.759 01:22.280 12 3. D. Ricciardo Red Bull 01:23.749 01:23.585 01:22.680 12 4. M. Verstappen Red Bull 01:23.578 01:23.178 01:23.087 12 5. K. Raikkonen Ferrari 01:23.796 01:23.504 01:23.113 14 6. S. Vettel Ferrari 01:24.124 01:23.688 01:23.334 12 7. V. Bottas Williams 01:24.251 01:24.023 01:23.522 12 8. C. Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 01:24.496 01:24.077 01:23.643 12 9. S. Perez Force India 01:24.698 01:24.003 01:23.782 16 10. F. Alonso McLaren 01:24.578 01:24.192 01:23.981 12 11. N. Hulkenberg Force India 01:24.463 01:24.203 13 12. J. Button McLaren 01:24.583 01:24.348 12 13. D. Kvyat Toro Rosso 01:24.696 01:24.445 11 14. R. Grosjean Haas 01:24.716 01:24.480 12 15. K. Magnussen Renault 01:24.669 01:24.625 12 16. E. Gutiérrez Haas 01:24.406 01:24.778 12 17. J. Palmer Renault 01:24.903 6 18. F. Massa Williams 01:24.941 4 19. M. Ericsson Sauber 01:25.202 8 20. F. Nasr Sauber 01:25.579 8 21. P. Wehrlein Manor 01:25.745 9 22. R. Haryanto Manor 01:25.939 9 Vettel bemused by Ferrari qualifying slump SEBASTIAN Vettel was left puzzled by Ferrari's lack of pace during qualifying for the Span- ish Grand Prix, as it dropped be- hind Red Bull. Vettel finished third in final practice, with Mercedes leading the way, but Ferrari could only claim fifth and sixth on the grid in qualifying. "It wasn't as good as it was all weekend [up to qualifying], so we need to understand," Vettel explained to reporters after the session. Vettel was the slower of the Ferrari drivers in qualifying, with Kimi Räikkönen opening up a two-tenth buffer on the fi- nal Q3 runs. "He [Räikkönen] maybe had a bit better feeling in qualifying, as I was struggling throughout. Q1 already wasn't great, whereas this morning was very good, so… "We were confident that we were trying the right things, but Barcelona is very sensitive to changes, and changes to ambient and track [temperatures]. "I think we didn't get the car to work the way it should and that's why we underperformed – we were just too slow," the four- time World Champion summed up. Räikkönen pin-pointed the fi- nal sector as the main issue for Ferrari. "It was not an easy day: we did our best, but the result is a bit disappointing," he said. "We seemed to struggle quite a lot in the last sector and I'm not surprised we were losing a lot of time there. "Before qualifying we made some changes to my set-up and the car felt better, but it was not easy to get the laps that we wanted and make the handling exactly as we desired." Sebastian Vettel