Lewis Hamilton on pole ahead of Maldonado - Spain GP 2012

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton takes pole for the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of Pastor Maldonado's Williams.

Hamilton blew the field away with his final lap, a 1:21.707 which was almost six-tenths clear of his nearest challenger.

The best of the rest was Pastor Maldonado, who surprised everyone by topping Q2 and taking his place on the front row for Williams.

Fernando Alonso briefly gave the Spanish crowd hope that he could put the Ferrari on pole position, but had to settle for third as eight drivers competed furiously for a pole position which appeared wide open.

The strong-looking Lotus pairing of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen took fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Sauber's Sergio Perez, while the winners of the last two races, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel, could only take 7th and 8th.

Kamui Kobayashi and Michael Schumacher, neither of whom set lap times in Q3, rounded out the top 10.


Eurosport

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time            Gap     1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m21.707s  2.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m22.285s  3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m22.302s  4.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m22.424s  5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m22.487s  6.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m22.533s  7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m23.005s  8.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     No time  9.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             No time 10.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       No time Q2 cut-off time: 1m22.904s                                    Gap ** 11.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m22.944s   +  0.839 12.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m22.977s   +  0.872 13.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m23.125s   +  1.020 14.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m23.177s   +  1.072 15.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m23.265s   +  1.160 16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m23.442s   +  1.337 17.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m23.444s   +  1.339 Q1 cut-off time: 1m24.362s                                    Gap * 18.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m24.981s   + 2.398 19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m25.277s   + 2.694 20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m25.507s   + 2.924 21.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m26.582s   + 3.999 22.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m27.032s   + 4.449 23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m27.555s   + 4.972 24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m31.122s   + 8.539  107% time: 1m28.363s

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2

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