Germany’s Nico Rosberg handed Mercedes their third pole position in succession yesterday with team-mate Lewis Hamilton sealing a front row lockout at the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix.
The pole was Rosberg’s second in a row after Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, took pole in China last month.
Red Bull’s series leader Sebastian Vettel qualified third with Kimi Raikkonen alongside on the second row for Lotus.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, the local favourite at his home race, will start fifth with team-mate Felipe Massa finishing sixth.
Later, Massa was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
“I had a really good lap in the end... it’s always a good motivation, especially for the team. Front row. Fantastic. But of course we have to be a bit cautious because of what we saw in Bahrain,” said Rosberg, who finished ninth in that race.
“So it’s nice, but to be enjoyed with caution.”
Mercedes last swept the front row in China last season, a race won by Rosberg while then team-mate Michael Schumacher failed to finish.
Yesterday was the first time since 1955, when Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio and Britain’s Stirling Moss were racing for the ‘Silver Arrows’, that a Mercedes works team had chalked up three poles in a row.
The German manufacturer left Formula One as a works team in 1955, however, and only returned in 2010 after buying the title-winning Brawn GP.
“Am I confident for this race? Not entirely,” said team principal Ross Brawn.
“I could see from fuel work, that we’re not on top of it as much as we are in qualifying but we’ve done a lot of work on that.
“Can we win this race? I don’t know.”
Statistics suggests Mercedes have a strong chance, given that only once in the last 22 years has a driver won in Barcelona without starting on the front row – and that was Schumacher in 1996 from third.
Further back, former champions Williams – last year’s race winners with Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado – were in deep trouble.
A year on from the only win of his F1 career, Maldonado qualified 18th with Finnish rookie team-mate Valtteri Bottas 17th.
Today’s grid in Spain...
| 1. Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:20.718 |
| 2. Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:20.972 |
| 3. Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:21.054 |
| 4. Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 1:21.177 |
| 5. Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:21.218 |
| 6. Felipe Massa | Ferrari | *1:21.219 |
| 7. Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:21.308 |
| 8. Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1:21.570 |
| 9. Sergio Perez | McLaren | 1:22.069 |
| 10. Paul Di Resta | Force India | 1:22.233 |
| 11. Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1:22.127 |
| 12. Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1:22.166 |
| 13. Adrian Sutil | Force India | 1:22.346 |
| 14. Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:22.355 |
| 15. Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | 1:22.389 |
| 16. Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | *1:22.793 |
| 17. Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:23.260 |
| 18. Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 1:23.318 |
| 19. Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 1:24.661 |
| 20. Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 1:24.713 |
| 21. Max Chilton | Marussia | 1:24.996 |
| 22. Charles Pic | Caterham | 1:25.070 |
Note: Massa, Gutierrez handed three-place penalties.