Lewis Hamilton stole pole position from Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel with less than a tenth of a second of advantage. Valtteri Bottas will start the race on P3.
Q1 started with a warning for Vettel telling him to stop the car. However, the problem was solved and Vettel was able to continue qualifying without any issues. Wehrlein managed to make it through less than a tenth ahead of his teammate Ericsson and Palmer. Stroll, Vandoorne and Kvyat were the other drivers out in Q1.
| 16 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber F1 Team | 1’22.332 |
| 17 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault F1 Sport Team | 0.069 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams Martini Racing | 0.079 |
| 19 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren Honda | 0.200 |
| 20 | Daniil Kvyat | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 0.414 |
While Kvyat was last, Sainz had better luck and was P12, which was surely disappointing for the Spaniard who had his best qualifying here back in 2015 with P5. Magnussen was 11th and the other drivers eliminated were Hülkenberg, Grosjean and Wehrlein.
| 11 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas F1 Team | 1’20.329 |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz Jr | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 0.042 |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault F1 Sport Team | 0.068 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Haas F1 Team | 0.188 |
| 15 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber F1 Team | 0.474 |
On the other hand, this time Alonso brought the joy for Spaniards on home soil. He managed to qualify P7 with his McLaren, matching his best result since his comeback to the British team in 2015. He was right ahead of Pérez, Massa and Ocon, who closed the top 10.
Hamilton had enough with his first attempt to secure pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix. Vettel was only one tenth behind, while Bottas and Räikkönen were 2 and 3 tenths off Hamilton‘s time respectively. The Red Bulls finished 5th and 6th, with Verstappen being 5 tenths ahead of Ricciardo.
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1’19.149 |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Scuderia Ferrari | 0.051 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport | 0.224 |
| 4 | Kimi Räikkonen | Scuderia Ferrari | 0.290 |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 0.557 |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 1.026. |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren Honda | 1.899 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1.921 |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | Williams Martini Racing | 2.083 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 2.123 |