Lewis Hamilton claimed a brilliant pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix with a super lap as the clock expired to beat Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton had been trailing Rosberg in the closing stages of Q3 after locking up at the end of his initial attempt, which had left him eight tenths off the lead. The world champion made no repeat of that mistake on his final run, going fastest in all three sectors to claim pole by two tenths of a second. It means Hamilton has topped Rosberg in the three qualifying sessions where the two drivers have had a clean fight on Saturday, following his engine issues in China and Russia.
Red Bull locked out the second row, with Daniel Ricciardo posting a mega 1:22.680 lap of his own after the clock had expired to beat Max Verstappen by four tenths. The Dutch teenager had been quicker in the opening two sessions and was second early in the final session but will have to settle for fourth on the grid for his first race with the Milton Keynes outfit.
Ferrari had looked close in FP3 but its challenge never materialised in qualifying as the team found itself off the pace of Red Bull. In a surprise, Kimi Raikkonen outqualified Sebastian Vettel despite appearing to struggle with his balance for much of the weekend. Behind that was Valtteri Bottas, the only Williams to make it beyond Q1 after the team made a timing error with Felipe Massa and failed to set a quick enough lap.
Sergio Perez qualified ninth, one place up on Fernando Alonso, who took McLaren-Honda into the top-ten for the first time since its partnership began last year. Alonso, who has been consistently quicker than teammate Jenson Button all weekend, scraped through by just 0.011s, vindicating his recent optimism at the team's upgrades in Barcelona.
Both McLarens are running significant upgrades this weekend but only Jenson Button has the team's new front wing, and has struggled to find an ideal balance with his car since first practice. The 2009 world champion was briefly in the top ten as the clock expired but was eventually knocked down to 12th position behind Nico Hulkenberg in the closing moments of Q2.
Daniil Kvyat's first weekend at Toro Rosso has had an inauspicious start, being outqualified by new teammate Carlos Sainz and missing out on Q3 entirely in 13th. That put him one place up on Romain Grosjean, who has now beaten Esteban Gutierrez in five straight qualifying sessions, with Renault's Kevin Magnussen the final man to drop out of the middle session.
Q1 saw a big shock as Massa dropped out of the session, posting an early lap and then returning to the pits. He slowly dropped down the order and had no time to respond at the end of the session when he was relegated to 18th in the closing minutes. That saw him finish one place behind Renault's Jolyon Palmer, who has spent all of Saturday playing catch-up after handing his car over to Esteban Ocon in FP1 and then losing valuable time due to a puncture in FP2.
Marcus Ericsson continued his qualifying advantage over teammate Felipe Nasr, beating the Brazilian driver by three tenths of a second. As with FP3 Sauber finished clear of the Manor drivers, with Pascal Wehrlein qualifying in 21st, less than 0.2s up on the improving Rio Haryanto in the other orange and blue car.