Hamilton fastest but Red Bull schools Ferrari in Spanish GP Qualifying.

A shocker at the worst possible time for Ferrari:  after no breaks in the first four races in Asia, a dramatic loss of performance in qualifying for  the first European meet will do nothing to quash the rumor mill.
Another dramatic management shakeup before the end of the season is unlikely but at the very least Ferrari will need to ask how it managed  1:22.7 in pre season testing but could do no better than 1:23.1 today.


Mercedes, on the other hand improved over a second on their testing time. The irony is they turned almost 2000 laps more than their competitors in testing yet they have had reliability issues on Hamilton's car the past two races.

The real surprise is Red Bull, for all their bellyaching about Renault power,  it's clear why neither Mercedes nor Ferrari wanted to give them a top spec power unit:  on a technical track like the Circuit de Catalunya,  the matte blue RB12s  easily bested the Ferraris, with Ricciardo less than 3/10th from Hamilton.

Catalunya usually turns into a procession,  Rosberg has no reason to take the fight to Hamilton so he will be perfectly happy in second if that's how it will play out.   Let's put our hopes in "teenage" Max Verstappen and "Honey Badger" Ricciardo pulling off something special at the start tomorrow.