Verstappen qualifies on pole as Perez and Leclerc dropped out early

Max Verstappen has qualified on pole position for the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix as the Dutchman is proving untouchable in Barcelona. The 25-year-old looks likely to extend his World Championship lead as his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez failed to escape from Q2. Carlos Sainz will start alongside Verstappen but he will not have support from his teammate either as Leclerc failed to reach Q2. Lando Norris rounded out the top three. 

Lance Stroll managed to out-qualify Fernando Alonso. There's a place on the second-row for Pierre Gasly. Lewis Hamilton looked likely to start from the front-row but other cars beat him on the second run in Q3. He ended up fifth. 

For the first time since Monaco 2019, Leclerc failed to escape from Q1. Last year’s pole sitter didn’t have the pace in Barcelona, leaving Ferrari with more questions than answers about their upgrades. That wasn’t the end of the big-name casualties early in this qualifying. George Russell struggled throughout and wasn’t quick enough to escape Q2. Perez put himself under pressure and then made a mistake by running onto the gravel. He had one last attempt but couldn’t make it out of Q2 either. 

Russell and Hamilton had a collision together down the home straight. Hamilton tried to overtake, and Russell initially moved to the right before drifting back to the left and into the seven-time World Champions path. Hamilton took some wing damage. 

Most teams, including Aston Martin, Ferrari and Mercedes, introduced minor changes to their cars, but none were more visible than the Italian team, and this qualifying session saw them in anger for the first time. 

And even the track introduced a change, though it wasn’t a debut. The chicane had disappeared for the first time since 2006, and now drivers use the outside loop. This shaves around five seconds off the lap time. This has proved to be an action zone all weekend regarding questions about whether drivers would lift or stay flat on the throttle. 

Q1 

The imminent threat of rain caused a stampede out of the garage, though it appeared the circuit remained slightly damp from earlier, with plenty of drivers sliding off the circuit. This included Alonso, who made a mistake at the final corner and did well to avoid the walls. 

Eight drivers managed to set times before a red flag came out for some gravel on the circuit. Both Ferrari cars and Red Bull drivers were yet to set a time in this initial period. Those two teams ensured they were near the front of the queue for the restart. Leclerc and Perez failed to reach the top ten on their first lap. 

With five minutes remaining, Perez and Leclerc were joined by both Williams drivers and Tsunoda. Under pressure, Perez pulled a lap out of the bag to lift him into P4 at the time. Leclerc only managed to reach P12, meaning the pressure stayed on. Substantial track evolution saw huge jumps up the leaderboard, pushing Leclerc back into the danger zone. Perez survived by the skin of his teeth in P15.  

Out - P16 Bottas, P17 Magnussen, P18 Albon, P19 Leclerc, P20 Sargeant 

Q2 

Red Bull and Sainz got their laps in early during the second session to avoid the same stress levels. Though Perez was around one second slower than his teammate’s benchmark, this allowed a few drivers to split them. 

With seven minutes remaining, Perez and Sainz had dropped to P8 and P9, respectively. Zhou sat in tenth, with both McLaren and both AlphaTauri drivers in the danger zone. They were joined by Hulkenberg. 

Perez ran across the gravel on his next push lap, and fortunately for him, Red Bull had put enough fuel in the car for a second attempt. Under pressure and without the ideal warm-up, Perez couldn’t produce the goods. Norris made a huge jump and almost matched Verstappen’s purple time. Russell was the second big-name casualty in Q2. 

Out - P11 Perez, P12 Russell, P13 Zhou, P14 De Vries, P15 Tsunoda