Spanish GP final practice and qualifying
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By: Geoff Creighton
Summary
Status: Stopped
And with that, thanks very much for your company. Join Autosport here again tomorrow for live coverage of the Spanish Grand Prix.
Here's our full qualifying report, as Bottas scores his third pole in a row:
Vettel laments a difficult last sector but reckons his Ferrari team extracted everything from the car. "The car doesn't feel bad, but obviously we are not quick enough," is his reaction.
"I really enjoyed that," Bottas tells Jenson Button. "I enjoy the adrenaline rush you get from those laps. Very pleased.
"I've started the season well; I feel better and better in the car. I look forward to tomorrow."
"I've started the season well; I feel better and better in the car. I look forward to tomorrow."
What a stunning lap from Bottas to secure pole position! Not even he could match his first flying run as eight of the 10 failed to improve at their second attempt.
Q3 result: 1 Bottas, 2 Hamilton, 3 Vettel, 4 Verstappen, 5 Leclerc, 6 Gasly, 7 Grosjean, 8 Magnussen, 9 Kvyat, 10 Ricciardo.
Those were some massively anti-climactic final runs - only Leclerc and Kvyat improved on their second attempts, and they stayed where they were.
But Hamilton doesn't improve either, and neither does Vettel. It's pole position for Valtteri Bottas.
It's not happening for Bottas on this attempt - he's slower in sector two as well. But so is Hamilton.
No improvement from Bottas or Vettel in the first sector - there's an improvement from Hamilton, but it's still a tenth slower than what his team-mate managed in the first run.
Every other driver in Q3 has now joined Leclerc on track. Bottas is running ahead of Hamilton on track this time.
Leclerc is three tenths down on Vettel in the first sector, so this is looking like damage limitation for the Ferrari newcomer.
"There's a lot of gravel out of Turn 12 into 13," says Verstappen. TV pictures of the track there show he's absolutely right.
Leclerc is heading out! If he's really, really fast, he might be able to do two runs here, but that will presumably involve a proper race-spec pitstop.
The halfway point in Q3 has ticked over.
The order is - 1 Bottas, 2 Hamilton, 3 Vettel, 4 Verstappen, 5 Gasly, 6 Grosjean, 7 Magnussen, 8 Kvyat, 9 Ricciardo.
The order is - 1 Bottas, 2 Hamilton, 3 Vettel, 4 Verstappen, 5 Gasly, 6 Grosjean, 7 Magnussen, 8 Kvyat, 9 Ricciardo.
Hamilton's lap included at least two sketchy, wide moments, and he also complained on the radio about not being told about Ricciardo's slower Renault earlier.
Leclerc still in the garage at the moment as Ferrari continues work on what is presumably residual damage from that Q2 wide moment.
Kvyat and Ricciardo make up the order in P8 and P9, having lapped on used softs. No sign of Leclerc yet.
Grosjean is two tenths slower than Gasly but 0.011s up on Magnussen in what is currently an all-Haas battle for sixth.
Vettel is two tenths quicker than Bottas in the first sector, but that hasn't really paid off for Ferrari all weekend.
Advantage Bottas in what will likely be an all-Mercedes pole battle - the Finn is just over a tenth up in S1.
All Q3 participants but Leclerc are now on track. The Monegasque's Ferrari is still being worked on.
Up front as we begin Q3, Bottas has now been fastest in every session this weekend except the one in which he spun off on his out-lap...
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