British driver Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes steers his car during the qualifying session for the Spanish GP at Catalunya racetrack in Montmelo, Barcelona province, Catalonia, north-eastern Spain, yesterday.
DPA/Barcelona
Lewis Hamilton stormed to his fourth pole position of the season at the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix qualifying yesterday ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg in another big display of Mercedes power.
Hamilton clocked 1 minute 25.232 seconds on the 4.566-kilometres Circuit de Catalunya for his 35th career pole as he seeks his fourth straight race win today with which he would dethrone Rosberg atop of the championship.
Rosberg posted 1:25.400 and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull third on 1:26.623 as he finished ahead of world struggling world champion Sebastian Vettel yet again.
Vettel will start from 10th after being forced to retire with eight minutes left in the final session with what appeared to be gearbox problems, the latest setback for Vettel in the season, and in Barcelona where he only managed four laps in Friday practice.
Mercedes have ruled F1 this season, getting all poles, Rosberg winning the opener and Hamilton the next three ahead of the German to cut his championship lead to four points, 79-75. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso is a distant third on 41 and Vettel fifth on 33 after four races.
Alonso was seventh in qualifying, behind teammate Kimi Raikkonen, and is unlikely to repeat his victory from last year in front of a Spanish home crowd.
Instead, the 2008 world champion Hamilton hopes for his first win in Spain as Mercedes continued to dominate although all teams tried to improve their cars in the three-week break between the last race in China and the start of the European swing.
“Coming here this weekend, I didn’t know where everyone would be. But I see the development and work that has gone on to get the car ready and it inspires me,” Hamilton said.
“To have the kind of performance we have, I have never really known that before. I’m overwhelmed, so happy.”
Hamilton got the pole seconds after Rosberg had his fastest time in the dying seconds of the session, saying “I had to eke out everything and more from the car.”
Rosberg was not amused that the momentum seems to stay with Hamilton, but remained defiant.
“Very disappointing. I don’t particularly enjoy coming second to Lewis ... Lewis did a better job,” he said.
“Second is only a little away from optimum. All it takes is a good start tomorrow and I’m in the lead again and it’s still all to play for.” Ricciardo was happy with third but not with the gap on Mercedes while Vettel lamented his latest misfortune in the so far winless campaign.
“I lost second gear (in the pit lane). I still had third gear and above so I thought I’d try without second gear. I tried until turn one and then lost all other gears,” he said.
“It is bad, but there is nothing you can do, you have to take it as it comes ... Things are not going well, there are little problems, little mistakes. But I am convinced that we will overcome it. Everyone (in the team) is highly motivated.”
Vettel’s mishap forced a brief interruption of the last session until his car was towed away, and the first session was also stopped after Pastor Maldonado’s Williams smacked into a wall.
