Lewis Hamilton takes pole for the Spanish GP

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton will start on pole for Sunday's Spanish GP at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain. It is his third pole of the season but first since the Chinese GP.

Championship rival Sebastian Vettel will start alongside him in his Ferrari, and the second Mercedes and Ferrari will be on row two with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

The Mercedes teammates turned their fastest times during their first runs in Q3 but failed to improve during their second runs, allowing Vettel to displace Bottas off of the front row.

The Red Bull Racing teammates lock out row three ahead of home crowd favorite - and start of the session - Fernando Alonso, who qualified seventh in his McLaren ahead of Sergio Perez, Felipe Massa and Esteban Ocon.

The Spanish fans were delighted to see Alonso advance out of Q2 after turning the 10th fastest lap of the session. The drivers who weren't as lucky were the Haas teammates as well as the remaining Toro Rosso, Renault and Sauber as Carlos Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg and Pascal Wehrlein were eliminated.

Marcus Ericsson, Jolyon Palmer, Lance Stroll, Stoffel Vandoorne and Daniil Kvyat were out in Q1. A bit of drama stuck early on in the session for Vettel as his team radioed to him to stop the car on track due to a problem. Vettel radioed back "are you sure?" and, after a couple of adjustments on the steering wheel, got back up to speed and turned the fastest lap of the session to that point.

The Spanish GP will start at 8 a.m. ET Sunday.

Unofficial qualifying results:

1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
2. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
3. Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
4. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
5. Max Verstappen - Red Bull
6. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull
7. Fernando Alonso - McLaren
8. Sergio Perez - Force India
9. Felipe Massa - Williams
10. Esteban Ocon - Force India
11. Kevin Magnussen - Haas
12. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso
13. Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
14. Romain Grosjean - Haas
15. Pascal Wehrlein - Sauber
16. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber
17. Jolyon Palmer - Renault
18. Lance Stroll - Williams
19. Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren
20. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso