Hamilton takes pole in surprising qualifying

F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunya

Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position for the Spanish GP, but that is as far as what could have been expected. Pastor Maldonado put his Williams in second place after running impressively throughout the entire qualifying, while home driver Fernando Alonso impressed to put his Ferrari in third place.

The Circuit De Catalunya is blistering hot today with the track temperature as high as 41°C, a factor that will surely influence who will come out in front at the end of qualifying.

Paul Di Resta is the first to take to the track, opting for a first run on the hard Pirelli tyres. Di Resta went wide out of turn 9 and eventually got blocked by Pic who didn't mind blocking Di Resta as he himself was getting up to speed to start his own flying lap.

One minute later Alonso posts the fastest time, only to be topped by Pérez a few seconds later. These two immediately chose to come out on the softer, yellow marked Pirellis.

The McLarens joined the track action later on and chose to do several consecutive flying laps on the hard tyres. HAmilton went immediately fastest on the harder tyre while Button's first lap was 7th fastest, marginally slower than both Lotus cars. Jenson complained about massive understeer on these tyres, just like Hamilton did on Friday.

4 minutes from the end, Maldonado tops the times thanks to a time on the soft tyres. He was quicker than Hamilton, Pérez, Schumacher, Alonso, Grosjean, Raikkonen, Button, Rosberg, Massa. 11th is Kobayashi, followed by Senna, Hulkenberg, Vergne, Ricciardo, Di Resta and Petrov. Everybody behind will have to do better than 1:25.675 to make it into Q2.

Apart from Maldonado, who will be happy to have needed just a single lap on options, everybody is out in the final few minutes to improve their times.

In the closing seconds, Senna attempts all he can to get into Q2, but taking too much kerb in turn 11 cost him deerly. He ended up in the gravel trap on the outside of the corner and will start the Spanish GP in 18th place. Also eliminiated are Petrov in 19th, ahead of Kovalainen, Pic, Glock, De La Rosa and Karthikeyan.

The latter didn't make it into the 107% margin by more than 2 seconds. He will only be able to race if the stewards allow him to.

Q2 is kicked off by both Sauber cars but neither of them is able to match the times set in Q1. A lot of track action follows and ten minutes later Hamilton is on top of the timesheet. In fact Hamilton is so confident of his lap that he just got out of his car and wandered off for a short break.

Second fastest man, Mark Webber is half a second slower than Hamilton. Button is third, Rosberg 4th, followed by Vettel, Schumacher, Alonso, Pérez, Maldonado and Kobayashi. At that time, neither Lotus nor the Toro Rosso cars have set a time yet as it looks like they will all four be aiming to set just a single lap in Q2.

One minute later all four set a time, with the Lotus cars moving up to 2nd and 3rd. Vergne posted the 5th time with Ricciardo in 8th.

One minute from the end, Alonso moved into 4th, Massa only 12th as the Brazilian looks set to be eliminated once again.

An intense last minute of action filled qualifying in Q2 resulted in Maldonado once again going fastest, topping Hamilton who stayed in the pitlane. Grosjean is third, ahead of Pérez, Raikkonen, Alonso, Rosberg, Kobayahshi and Schumacher.

Eliminated are therefore Button who kept struggling with his car balance, Mark Webber in 12th, Di Resta 13th and then Hulkenberg, Vergne, Ricciardo and Massa.

Kobayashi meanwhile, after qualifying 8th and into Q3 stopped his car on track on his outlap. He will not be able to compete in Q3.

Early on in the session, Vettel is the first to take the track. It is however obvious he's not out for the quick time as a slowly completes an out lap, runs past the finish line and returns to the pitlane after that.

Hamilton on the other hand went out for a flying lap 2 minutes into the session and set the only time yet halfway into the session. He was actually the only man on track at the time.

Michael Schumacher tne came out of the pitlane on the harder tyres and did the same as Vettel. Rosberg at the same time did complete a flying lap, half a second off of Hamilton's flyer.

Two minutes from the end, finally the cars come into action. Alonso is the first to start a flyer, 1:15 ahead of the end of the session. Raikkonen is 10 seconds behind him on the track, while Vettel also decided to get back on the track.

Alonso topped Hamilton and also beat Raikkonen and Grosjean. Maldonado managed to improve Alonso by just 0.017s, but it was Hamilton's second attempt on a brand new set of options that took pole, half a second ahead of Maldonado and Alonso.

Strangely, Hamilton stopped on track on his in-lap in the middle of track. There's no obvious car issue, so McLaren may have underfuelled the car for a better chance to get pole.