Pastor Maldonado has secured his first Formula 1 pole position after Lewis Hamilton lost his fastest lap from yesterday’s qualifying session.
Hamilton’s McLaren stopped on the circuit during his cool down lap due to it not having sufficient fuel onboard to return to parc ferme. Under the sport’s regulations, each car must return to pits under its own power and for the team to provide a one-litre fuel sample in post-qualifying scrutineering.
The FIA stewards rejected McLaren’s case – put forward by team representative Sam Michael – that the car had stopped out on track due to reasons of ‘force majeure’.
The stewards decision means that Hamilton will start from the back of the field.
The decision means that Williams’ Maldonado inherits pole for the Barcelona round – the first of his career and Williams’ first pole since Nico Hulkenburg scored the top spot in Brazil in 2010.
See below for the revised grid for the Spanish Grand Prix.
| No | Driver | Team | Grid |
| 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 2 |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 3 |
| 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 4 |
| 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 5 |
| 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 6 |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 7 |
| 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 8 |
| 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 9 |
| 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 10 |
| 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 11 |
| 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 12 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 13 |
| 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 14 |
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 15 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 16 |
| 19 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 17 |
| 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 18 |
| 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 19 |
| 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 20 |
| 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 21 |
| 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 22 |
| 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 23 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 24 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Spanish Grand Prix Race Guide
