As Lewis Hamilton claimed his 92nd career Formula 1 pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix, qualifying had a familiar feel but surprises could be sprung in Sunday’s race.
Having dominated practice, Mercedes secured another 1-2 in qualifying with Hamilton edging team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 0.059 seconds, while Max Verstappen’s “subscription” to third in qualifying resulted in a familiar look to the sharp end of the grid.
But Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has put the favourite tag firmly on Red Bull’s Verstappen due to his impressive pace from Friday practice plus tyre management strategy that helped him win the last race at Silverstone.
With Sergio Perez back in action for Racing Point after missing the Silverstone double-header after testing positive for COVID-19, the Mexican driver is also hunting a podium position.
Recapping all of Saturday’s qualifying action in Barcelona is Autosport Grand Prix editor Alex Kalinauckas and Autosport F1 reporter Luke Smith for the latest edition of The Autosport Podcast.
You can listen to the podcast either via the player below, or on all good audio platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.