© Getty Images

Spanish Grand Prix: Saturday ReportMax Verstappen dug deep to claim third place on the grid for the Spanish Grand Prix.

MaxVerstappendugdeeptoclaimthirdplaceonthegridfortheSpainGrandPrix,beatingMercedes’GeorgeRusselltothefrontofrowtwobyvirtueofbeingfirstacrossthelineasthepairsetidenticaltimes.However,itwasadisappointingsessionforYukiTsunoda.

FP3

Max ended the final hour of free practice in fifth position, with the Champion struggling for grip in the searing heat of the early afternoon in Barcelona. Yuki also complained of sliding on his soft tyres and the Japanese driver finished in 14th place. Oscar Piastri took top spot, over half a second clear of team-mate Lando Norris whose qualifying simulation ended with a trip into the run-off area at Turn 9 after suffering a snap of oversteer. Third place went to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, while Max’s best time of 1:13.375 left him two tenths behind the fourth-placed George.

Max ended the final hour of practice in fifth position© Getty Images

Q1

Yuki was the first of the Bulls to leave the garage at the start of Q1. His opening effort of 1:13.847 initially took him to fourth, but that was 0.348 behind early pacesetter Nico Hülkenberg and as the others began to cross the line, Yuki slid down the order.

At the top of the timesheet, Oscar took top spot with a lap of 1:12.551 with Lando in second, 0.248s behind his teammate. Max was the last man on track, however, and he split the McLarens with a lap of 1:12.798, just one thousandth of a second quicker than Lando.

Max and Oscar elected to stay in the garage for the second runs, but Yuki, in 19th ahead of the final runs, needed an improvement. Despite Yuki feeling that he had done a clean lap, the gain didn’t materialise, and he dropped out of qualifying in P20.

Also ruled out at the end of Q1 were 16th placed Nico, Haas’ Esteban Ocon, Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto who exited in P19 after a technical issue.

Q2

Max was out on track early at the start of Q2 and after Williams’ Alex Albon set the pace at 1:13.113, the Champion breezed past to take top spot with a lap of 1:12.358. He couldn’t hold on to P1, however, and Lando soon moved ahead. It was Oscar who went quickest in the first runs, however, with the Australian posting a lap of 1:11.998 to go 0.058s faster than his team-mate. Behind Max, George took fourth, just under five hundredths of a second behind the Champion, and the Ferrari’s of Lewis Hamilton and Charles slotted into fifth and sixth respectively.

Of the top five, it was only Charles who went back out for a final run. However, it was VCARB’s Isack Hadjar who impressed and jumped from P13 to P6 with his final run, ahead of Charles, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Antonelli and Pierre Gasly.

Alex was the first man eliminated, and was followed out of the session by Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, VCARB’s Liam Lawson, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Haas’ Ollie Bearman.

Q3

In the first runs of the top-10 shootout, Lando had taken provisional pole on 1:11.819 and Oscar took P2 0.017s behind. Both George and Charles went quicker than Max to put the Champion in P5.

That became sixth when Fernando went out for his sole run of the session on new tyres and suddenly the pressure was on for Max’s final flyer.

But, as ever, Max shrugged off the tension and delivered in style, climbing from 10th as improvements flooded in to take P3 in the final seconds. The result was made all the sweeter as George set an identical time of 1:11.848, but Max claimed the front of row two by virtue of setting the time first.

The McLarens locked out the front row, with Oscar claiming his fourth pole of the season with a lap of 1:11.546, with Lando two tenths off his team-mate. Behind the top four, Lewis qualified fifth ahead of Kimi, with Charles in seventh ahead of Pierre, the impressive Isack and 10th-place Fernando.