Leclerc takes pole position with last gasp effort at the Spanish Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc clinched pole position at the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain. Max Verstappen was in second position, 0.323 seconds slower than Leclerc. Carlos Sainz was in third position at his home race.

George Russell and Sergio Pérez rounded off the top five positions in the qualification session. Leclerc had just one lap in the dying minutes of the session and easily overhauled Verstappen’s lap time.

The qualifying session started under hot conditions with air temperatures at 34 degrees C and track temperatures at 46 degrees C at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C1), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C2), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C3), the hardest range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Q1: Alonso knocked out

Zhou Guanyo set the early pace with a lap time of 1m21.065s. The Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers, Verstappen and Pérez, went to the top of the time charts.

The Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Leclerc and Sainz, on their first runs slotted into first and second positions ahead of Verstappen.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were in fourth and fifth positions. The two Alfa Romeo Racing drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyo were in sixth and eighth positions.

In the dying minutes of the session, Mick Schumacher and Pierre Gasly escaped from the drop zone. Fernando Alonso much to the disappointment of the Spanish fans could only finish on seventeenth position.

Q1 dropzone: Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll, Alexander Albon, Nicholas Latifi

Q2: Norris and Gasly eliminated

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton went to the top of the time charts in the early running. Most of the drivers came out for their first runs on used tyres and slotted behind them.

In the dying minutes of the session, Ricciardo and Schumacher pushed themselves into the top ten positions.

Norris’ lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits and he was pushed into the drop zone.

Q2 dropzone: Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyo

Q3: Leclerc takes pole position

The last all-important twelve minutes of the top ten shootout started with pole position being contested by Leclerc and Verstappen.

Verstappen took provisional pole with a lap time of 1m19.073s. Leclerc spun on his first flying lap and was under immense pressure. Sainz slotted into second position.

After the first runs, the order was Verstappen, Sainz, Pérez, Russell, Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Magnussen and Schumacher.

Leclerc came out with three minutes to go and put in a stellar lap to take pole position with a lap time of 1m18.750s. Verstappen had to abort his final lap because of DRS-related issue.

Russell slotted into fourth position with his final lap to put himself on the second row.

Top 10: Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Sergio Pérez, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo, Mick Schumacher

2022 Spanish Grand Prix Qualification Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Teams	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:19.861	1:19.969	1:18.750	12
2	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:20.091	1:19.219	1:19.073	16
3	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:19.892	1:19.453	1:19.166	16
4	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:20.218	1:19.470	1:19.393	14
5	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:20.447	1:19.830	1:19.420	17
6	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:20.252	1:19.794	1:19.512	15
7	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:20.355	1:20.053	1:19.608	18
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:20.227	1:19.810	1:19.682	18
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:20.549	1:20.287	1:20.297	15
10	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Haas F1 Team	1:20.683	1:20.436	1:20.368	18
11	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:20.838	1:20.471		12
12	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:20.880	1:20.638		9
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:20.707	1:20.639		15
14	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:20.719	1:20.861		15
15	24	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:20.476	1:21.094		15
16	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	1:20.954			6
17	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:21.043			5
18	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:21.418			6
19	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1:21.645			6
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:21.915			9