2022 F1 Spanish GP Qualifying: Reliability thwarts Max Verstappen as Charles Leclerc takes pole

The 2022 F1 Spanish GP qualifying session witnessed Charles Leclerc take another pole of the season, ahead of both Red Bull's Max Verstappen (P2) and his teammate Carlos Sainz (P3).

The Dutchman had seemed set to grab P1 before he said "I lost power" and lost the pole position to Ferrari's Leclerc. Sainz, on the other hand, lacked the raw pace to outqualify either Verstappen or his teammate.

The Spanish GP Qualifying featured both shocking and brilliant moments, sprinkled throughout the session. In case you missed them, here's what happened!

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Spanish GP Qualifying: Here's what happened

#1 Leclerc comes back from a spin and snatches pole position

The battle between the Ferraris and Red Bulls for a first-row start was expected, however, things got interesting after the championship leader's error in Q3.

During his first run in Q3, Charles Leclerc made things harder for himself by spinning on track. This mounted the pressure on him to drive the perfect lap later.

However, Leclerc did not cave in and smashed the fastest lap set by Max Verstappen earlier on in the session. Ultimately, the Monegasque got his fifth pole position of the season while the Dutchman had to be content with P2 for tomorrow.

#2 George Russell secures a second-row start and beats Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes has made a step forward this weekend. The car seems to be handling much better than earlier. Porpoising is not much of an issue anymore, which certainly helps the drivers. Although the Mercedes drivers were still around half a second or so slower than the fastest time, it brought both drivers into contention.

Due to Mercedes' improved form, Russell was able to outqualify Sergio Perez. But perhaps the more significant achievement for Russell was getting the better of his teammate Lewis Hamilton once again. The seven-time world champion is on a four-race losing streak to Russell and it will be interesting to see how things unfold at the Spanish GP.

#3 Fernando Alonso gets knocked out in Q1

Otmar Szafnaur has his work cut out for him if he desires to transform Alpine into a front-running team. After an underwhelming lap time on his first run, Fernando Alonso was caught out during his second run as he was blocked by McLaren's Lando Norris.

The bigger shock was that the team did not deem it important for their other driver Esteban Ocon to go on a second run. Due to this, Ocon, too, was on the cusp of being eliminated but was saved by his good fortune.

Today's qualifying session exposed Alpine's shortcomings once again.

#4 The Green Red Bull is not that fast (yet!)

Sebastian Vettel's lap time in Q1 was almost half a second faster than his teammate Lance Stroll's. This, however, did not stop him from being eliminated in the first session along with Stroll. The German's surprised reaction of "are you kidding me?" is all you need to hear to know that Aston Martin's expectations for its car were far bigger this weekend.

The team is still in the process of learning about the new car at the moment. However, if Friday's long runs are any indication, Vettel might be able to finish in the points at the Spanish GP.

#5 McLaren flops as Haas and Alfa Romeo impress again

McLaren brought as many as 10 different upgrades to the Spanish GP. The upgrades were supposed to be worth about half a second. Unfortunately, that was not the case and the Woking-based team has slipped down the order. Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo and Haas appeared to have made progress.

The battle for midfield honors is going to be extremely interesting this season, especially with the way the momentum keeps shifting from team to team, depending on the race. Watch how things unfold tomorrow at the Spanish GP.