F1 Spanish Grand Prix: Who takes pole at the Madring?

| Getty Images Formula 1 is back in Madrid this weekend, for the Spanish Grand Prix at the all-new Madring. The street circuit winds around IFEMA Exhibition Centre in Madrid, and has been described as a “brutal and unforgiving” challenge for the drivers. Many elements stand out, but the signature aspect of the Madring might be La Monumental, a 550-meter sweeping corner with 24 degrees of banking, that winds through a section of track that could see 45,000 fans seated around that corner alone. Drivers enjoyed their first taste of the Madring on Friday, but today the lap times count for real. Mercedes got off to a strong start over the first two hours of practice, with George Russell topping the timing sheets in FP1 and teammate Kimi Antonelli going fastest in FP2. The Ferrari pair of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were at the front as well, with Leclerc third and Hamilton fourth in FP1, and the two bumping up a spot for second and third, respectively, in FP2 as Russell dropped to P4. Will those four battle for pole, or can someone else get into the mix? A driver to watch might just be rookie Arvid Lindblad, who was up in the top five during FP1 until an accident cut his session short, and he settled for P7. Max Verstappen finished fifth in FP1, while Lando Norris finished sixth. Norris missed the bulk of FP2 due to a gearbox issue on his MCL40, so he will be playing catchup on Saturday. We’ll be covering qualifying live here on SB Nation, with the session starting at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. You can also join the game thread that we will have on the brand-new SB Nation app, by downloading the app and joining the F1 Community. You can download the new app from the Apple Store or from Google Play. Spanish GP provisional starting grid Here is the provisional starting grid for the Spanish Grand Prix, which will be filled in throughout the qualifying hour: RowPositionDriverTeamPositionDriverTeam Row 112 Row 234 Row 356 Row 478 Row 5910 Row 61112 Row 71314 Row 81516 Row 91718 Row 101920 Row 112122 Spanish GP qualifying Here is how the qualifying hour unfolded. All updates are in Eastern time. Q1 10:00: Green light in Madrid with 18 minutes on the clock. A pair of Cadillacs are first on the track, with Bottas leading Pérez out to the circuit. 9:59: F1TV reports that Haas is “nowhere near” getting Bearman ready for the session. 9:53: James Hinchcliffe with a Dodgeball reference on the pre-quali show, walking about how drivers need to “duck, dive and dodge” due to the traffic. 9:50: Chris Medland reports from the Haas garage that it might take a “minor miracle,” according to a Haas mechanic, to get Bearman ready for Q1. 9:49: James Hinchcliffe points to VCARB, and in particular Lindblad, as a team and driver to watch when it comes to sneaking into Q3. What happened in FP3? FP3 looked rather similar to FP2, with Antonelli atop the timing sheets once more. He posted a lap time of 1:32.797, with Leclerc second, 0.166 seconds off Antonelli’s pace. Piastri, Norris, and Verstappen rounded out the top five. Norris was able to make the most of FP3, after missing the bulk of FP2 due to a gearbox issue. Two separate crashes — one from Hamilton and the other from Bearman — disrupted the session and brought out red flags. Hamilton was on pace to go to the top of the table on a push lap, but drove head-on into the barrier at final corner, bringing out the red flag. Then in the final minute it was Bearman’s turn to bring out the red flag, as he crashed in Turn 10. The team at Haas is stil lworking to get his VF-26 ready for qualifying.

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