Rosberg broke Hamilton's string
Nico Rosberg broke a string of Lewis Hamilton four consecutive pole positions as he was the fastest in the qualifying for the Spanish GP at Catalunya Circuit.
In the Q1 the fastest was Lewis Hamilton with 1:26.382, just 0.108 faster than Nico Rosberg. Raikkonen was 0.255 seconds behind and Carlos Sainz had fourth best result. On the other side Manor’s Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens, as well Force India’s Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg failed to qualify for the second round. Last who was under the line was Sauber’s Marcus Ericcson.
Both McLarens went into the Q2 what was huge improvent in regard to previous races, Toro Rosso again looked well as it looked on Friday, so it was expected big battle for the places in Q3.
In the second round of qualifying Mercedes again had best time, but this time Nico Rosberg was fastest (1.25.166) with Hamilton, Raikkonen and Felipe Massa behind him. Out of the Q3 stayed out both Mclaren’s and Lotus’ and remaining Sauber with Felipe Nasr.
At the end, fastest was Nico Rosberg. His early set 1:24.681 was enough to hold off Lewis Hamilton who couldn’t manage to win fifth pole position in a row. In the second row at the start of the race on Sunday will be Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas. Third row will be filled with Toro Rosso’s of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen, on the 7th and 8th are Kimi Raikkonen and Daniil Kvyat, while the fifth row in the grid is reserved for Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo.
Mercedes remains first favorite after all what was seen in the practices and qualifying, Ferrari is still behind them, while we could expect some nice performances from Toro Rosso’s duo. Williams looking a little bit inconsistent, but main question is if McLaren could win their first points in the season as they are on the good way of improvement.
