Lewis Hamilton Takes His 100th Pole Position At 2021 Spanish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton hit a milestone during qualifying for the 2021 Formula One Spanish Grand Prix: he secured his 100th pole position. He remains the most successful qualifying driver ever to compete in F1, and his 100 poles will stand as the number to beat for the near future.

The first qualifying session kicked off after a slight delay. It was a bit of a messy one, with traffic holding things up at Turn 13 for several drivers setting their flying laps. It was a fairly tight field, with just over a single second separating the fastest lap from the drop zone.

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is almost 3 miles long, and F1 teams have advanced GPS info and telemetry telling them where each car is on track.

And somehow they still managed to end up with 7 cars in about 200 metres. https://t.co/88MsLZJbbJ

— Danny (@DannyBrennan72) May 8, 2021

At the very end of the session, Lando Norris went fastest, highlighting just how far McLaren has come in the past few years.

16. Yuki Tsunoda17. Kimi Raikkonen18. Mick Schumacher19. Nicholas Latifi20. Nikita Mazepin

The second session went off without a hitch, but it did highlight something interesting: Red Bull Racing's speed with Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver is definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with this year.

Another strange facet of this session was the fact that Lewis Hamilton ended the session on tires that had already run several laps. Drivers are required to start the race on the tires they end the second qualifying session with. It's hard to imagine this being an oversight on Mercedes' part, but it could present an interesting strategy during tomorrow's race.

11. Lance Stroll12. Pierre Gasly13. Sebastian Vettel14. Antonio Giovinazzi15. George Russell

In the final qualifying session, several drivers traded fastest lap: Norris, Carlos Sainz Jr., Esteban Ocon, and Charles Leclerc. Sergio Perez spun his Red Bull, slowing several cars in the final sector on one of his laps—but despite that, Lewis Hamilton still went fastest, securing his 100th pole position

1. Lewis Hamilton2. Max Verstappen3. Valtteri Bottas4. Charles Leclerc5. Esteban Ocon6. Carlos Sainz Jr. 7. Daniel Ricciardo8. Sergio Perez9. Lando Norris10. Fernando Alonso