Verstappen takes pole at Spanish GP ahead of Sainz
MONTMELO, SPAIN » Max Verstappen stormed his way to pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday while his top rivals struggled on the damp track and will start well behind the two-time defending champion.
Verstappen didn’t even need to use all of his time in qualifying after he set an untouchable flying lap. Red Bull brought him back to the garage while his rivals fought for the rest of the spots.
“I knew there was quite a bit of potential in the car and that I could push it to the limit, and it was pretty quick,” Formula One’s points leader said. “Then I went out again for the second one, and it would have been even better, but I think the (team) got a bit excited and told me to abort.”
Red Bull teammate — and Verstappen’s top challenger — Sergio Pérez will start Sunday’s race from 11th place on the grid. Last weekend, Pérez crashed in qualifying for Monaco and had to start from the back.
Verstappen and Pérez have swept all six races this season. Verstappen leads Pérez by 39 points.
Fernando Alonso, third in the standings at 51 points behind Verstappen, could do no better than eighth for Aston Martin. It looks like his legions of Spanish fans may have to keep waiting for him to end his decade-long wait for a F1 win.
Carlos Sainz of Ferrari gave the home crowd something to cheer about though by producing the second-best time right ahead of a surprising Lando Norris in third in his McLaren. Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes will start from fourth.
Verstappen’s fourth pole position on the season gives him 24 in his career.
“I have a lot of great memories here and hopefully we can have another one tomorrow,” he said.
Charles Leclerc took pole last year but this time he will start from 19th after his Ferrari was perplexingly slow. After saying he had a problem with the “rear” of his car, Leclerc briefly pitted before going out for one last lap in the closing minute of the first qualifying session that just was not near enough.
George Russell also had trouble and will start 12th right behind Pérez after complaining that his Mercedes was bouncing and he “had no confidence with tires.” He and teammate Hamilton, who was fifth, even touched at one point while trying to launch flying laps, causing bits of one of their cars to fly off.
Pierre Gasly had posted the fourth-best time, but he was given two threeplace grid penalties for two incidents of reckless driving, knocking the Alpine driver back to 10th.
Rain during the third practice earlier Saturday left some wet patches that caused several cars to spin into the gravel early in qualifying.
Alonso and Pérez both veered off course. Alonso took the blame for banging up the floor of his Aston Martin by grinding it through the gravel.