BARCELONA, Spain – Valtteri Bottas continued his strong start to the Formula One season by earning his third-straight pole Saturday at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Bottas rocketed to a stunning lap time of 1:15.406, more than half a second clear of his teammate and defending Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton in second.
“This feels really good,” said Bottas, who was fastest in every round of qualifying Saturday. “In every run in qualifying I found room for improvement, little bits here and there, and I managed to get everything together in Q3 and had a very strong first lap. I think the package we have brought to Barcelona is working very well and the car was very strong, especially in sector three. All the credit for that goes to the team, thank you to everyone back in Brackley and Brixworth. Our long run pace looked good on Friday, but a lot can happen on a Sunday. The start and Turn 1 will be particularly important. Tomorrow, Lewis and I both want to win, so I’m looking forward to a hard and fair fight.”
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third fastest followed by the Red Bull entry of Max Verstappen in fourth. Charles Leclerc qualified fifth despite hitting a curb during Q2 and slightly damaging his Ferrari chassis.
Pierre Gasly was sixth in the second Red Bull entry and was closely followed by the Haas pairing of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen. Daniil Kvyat was ninth for Toro Rosso, followed by the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo in 10th.
Ricciardo will, however, be forced to drop three spots for causing a collision with Kvyat during the most recent race in Baku City. That will elevate McLaren’s Lando Norris to 10th for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.