LIVE: An exciting Formula 1 championship will rise to another level when the paddock arrives in Spain for the traditional opening of the European phase of the championship (23:00 AEST).
Championship points leader Charles Leclerc survived a turn in a nervous third qualifying session to get the pole ahead of reigning Red Bull world champion Max Verstappen, who struggled with reliability issues.
Verstappen said: “I couldn’t do my last race. It’s a shame, but overall being in the front row here, watching the whole weekend, was a good achievement.”
Leclerc’s teammate, 24, Carlos Sainz will be third, and Leclerc hopes the Ferrari duo can reach a double and further damage Verstappen’s title defense.
“I hope Carlos can help,” Leclerc said. “I hope we can do a one-two with Carlos; it would be great for the team and we’ll give it our all.”
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But a much improved Mercedes qualifying performance has the silver arrows in hopes of fighting for the podium, with George Russell starting fourth and Lewis Hamilton sixth, on either side of Sergio Pérez’s second Red Bull.
“It’s our best performance in the standings this season,” Russell said.
Daniel Ricciardo has enjoyed a “pretty good session” to reach third place and will start ninth with his McLaren, two places ahead of teammate Lando Norris.
This is the first time Ricciardo has beaten his teammate this season.
“It was a pretty good session. I’m happy with Q3, “said Ricciardo. “It simply came to our notice then.
“I think so far it’s been a pretty tricky weekend, just trying to understand the new parts of the car, but I’m relatively happy to get to Q3 and get enough to do it.
“I think we’re still struggling a bit in some areas, so I’m just trying to perfect it, but on paper the ninth is a solid place to start, and we’ll keep shelling out. So hopefully we’ll continue to find pieces and pieces and get some solid points tomorrow “.
RACE CENTER: results of each session and complete grid
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