Spanish Grand Prix: Saturday Qualifying Recap
May 11, 2019
Overview
Event: Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix (Round 5 of 21)
Date: Saturday, May 11
Location: Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya
Layout: 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn track
Weather: Partly cloudy
Air Temps: 20.8-21.6 degrees Celsius (69.4-70.9 degrees Fahrenheit)
Track Temps: 31.8-36.4 degrees Celsius (89.2-97.5 degrees Fahrenheit)
Pole Winner: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:15.406 – new track record)
Result: Romain Grosjean qualified 7th / Kevin Magnussen qualified 8th
Free Practice No. 3 Rundown
Grosjean: 5th overall (1:17.192), 15 laps completed
Magnussen: 6th overall (1:17.530), 15 laps completed
Fastest Driver: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:16.568)
Most Laps: Robert Kubica of Williams (18 laps)
Q1 Rundown:
- Lasts 18 minutes, with all 20 drivers participating
- Fastest 15 drivers advance to Q2
Magnussen: 7th overall (1:17.669), advanced to Q2
Grosjean: 12th overall (1:18.042), advanced to Q2
Fastest Driver: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:16.979)
Cutoff: 15th overall Daniel Ricciardo of Renault (1:18.385)
Q2 Rundown:
- Lasts 15 minutes, featuring the 15 fastest drivers from Q1
- Fastest 10 drivers advance to Q3
Grosjean: 7th overall (1:17.066), advanced to Q3
Magnussen: 9th overall (1:17.272), advanced to Q3
Fastest Driver: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:15.924)
Cutoff: 10th overall Daniel Ricciardo of Renault (1:17.299)
Q3 Rundown:
- Lasts 12 minutes, featuring the 10 fastest drivers from Q2, all battling for the pole
Grosjean: 7th overall (1:16.911)
Magnussen: 8th overall (1:16.922)
Pole Winner: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:15.406 – new track record)
Second: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:16.040)
Recap
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen delivered strong qualifying efforts of seventh and eighth, respectively, for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya. It was the fourth time in five races this season the American squad placed both its drivers in Q3.
Magnussen set the seventh-fastest time in Q1 with a lap of 1:17.669 around the 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn track while Grosjean was 12th-quickest with a lap of 1:18.042. Only the top-15 drivers move on to Q2
In Q2, Grosjean set the seventh-fastest time with a lap of 1:17.066 and Magnussen was ninth with a lap of 1:17.272 to return both to the top-10 advancing to Q3.
Grosjean qualified a best-of-the-rest seventh in Q3, behind the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull line-ups, with a lap of 1:16.911, while Magnussen claimed eighth with a lap of 1:16.922.
Both Magnussen and Grosjean ran exclusively on the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tire throughout qualifying.
Taking the pole for the Spanish Grand Prix was Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas. His fast lap of 1:15.406 eclipsed teammate Lewis Hamilton’s 2017 track record of 1:16.173 set in Q3 last year and was good for his ninth career pole, his third of the season and his first at Barcelona. It was .634 of a second better than Hamilton’s Q3 lap today that earned the second starting position.
Romain Grosjean, Driver No. 8, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
“I hope we can carry this form over in the race. Here we’ve got the tires to work nicely, an area we’ve been struggling with recently, but we’re happy with today. We’re not far off the Red Bulls and we’re a good chunk ahead of the cars behind us. I think we can be proud of that. Everyone knows this track very well, so it’s not easy to make a difference. We extracted the best from today. It’s been a good day – a good qualifying.”
Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
“We probably did the maximum we could do today. We were just two tenths of a second from one of the Red Bulls and ahead of the rest of the midfield, so I’m quite happy. We’re not quite sure about race pace for tomorrow, we know it’s a difficult track to overtake on. Today we were sixth tenths of a second faster than the next best in the midfield behind us, so hopefully we’ll have enough to keep those guys behind. I don’t think it’ll be an easy race, but I think we’re in a good position to score good points starting both cars in P7 and P8.”
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
“It was a good result today. The whole team came back after a hard week in Baku to qualify today in seventh and eighth. Everybody did a good job, it’s fantastic. It’s definitely nice to be in this position again. We’re looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully scoring points.”