Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Both Alpine drivers were happy on Saturday, their performance in getting both cars into the top 10 underlining the progress they had made at the Portuguese Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso, who qualified 10th after failing to get a representative lap in final qualifying after being caught at the back of the queue, said their step forward since a difficult first two races “seems maybe too good to be true - but obviously it is true”. Esteban Ocon starts an excellent fifth, and Alonso admitted the 0.2secs gap between them in Q2 was a fair representation of his current state of competitiveness.

“I am giving 100% and that is not enough to be at that level at the moment so I need to keep improving,” Alonso said, pointing out that both Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo had taken time to get to their full potential at Renault, the team’s former name, “so it seems it is a team a little bit different from the others and you need an adaptation. I am trying to do this as quick as I can. I am not worried, it is going to come very soon if not already because in Imola we crossed the line together, in Portimao we crossed the line together. We try to help the team as much as we can.”

Alonso is worried, though, about starting 10th on used tyres on the dirty side of the track when others behind will have fresh tyres and more grip off the line. “We have to be aggressive,” he said. “We have to make a good start, a good first corner. After lap two or lap three, I think the positions are more or less defined for the remainder of the race because it’s very difficult to overtake.”

Simon Partridge: After another great qualifying picking up P4 in Spain, is Charles Leclerc heir to Lewis Hamilton as F1’s current, best qualifier crown?

Grimo75: Although it's the only thing I can see happening, I don't want another Hamilton-Bottas one-two.

We've talked about Lewis Hamilton's century of pole positions, but Max also has a notable 100 today - as this is his 100th race for Red Bull.

In that time he has won 11 times and been on the podium on 45 occasions.

But that win in 2016 for Max Verstappen was an incredible one. He got switched with Daniil Kvyat moving the other way to Toro Rosso days before the race and the Dutchman began fourth on the grid.

However, Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg wiped each other out on the first lap and Verstappen held off Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to win by less than a second on his Red Bull debut.

In doing so, Verstappen became the youngest driver to win a Formula 1 race, aged 18 years and 228 days.

Image source, Getty Images

Not only does Lewis Hamilton start in pole position, he also has a brilliant record in Spain with wins in each of the past four years.

Stephen Taylor: Lewis is in a very strong position to win today. I expect him to win but as with Mika Hakkinen's last lap heartbreak at the Spanish GP 20 years ago (2001), anything can happen in this sport and the race is never over until the chequered flag waves.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Yuki Tsunoda apologised to his Alpha Tauri team on Saturday evening after making comments that cast doubt on whether he was getting equal equipment to team-mate Pierre Gasly.

Frustrated at being knocked out in first qualifying, in which he was 0.366 seconds off the Frenchman, Tsunoda had said: “It’s always a different feedback compared to my team-mate, both sides are opposite. So, I have a little bit of a question mark: is it the same car? Obviously it is the same car, but the character of the car is too different. Maybe of course it is just a driving style, but yeah, I don’t know why I was struggling this much.”

These are not the sorts of remarks that go down well with teams, and Tsunoda later said on social media: “I wanted to apologise for my comments today. I didn’t mean to criticise the team, who have done a great job all weekend. I was just frustrated with my performance. Full send tomorrow.” Tsunoda’s frustrations seem rooted in his apparent stagnation after an impressive debut in Bahrain in March.

...while tennis star Dominic Thiem, the reigning US Open champion, has been seen at Alpha Tauri.

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And the return of fans also sees the first celebrity spot of the season.

Barcelona striker and World Cup winner Antoine Griezmann has been spotted in the Mercedes garage...

Now this is good news. We have 1,000 fans in at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for today's race in another small step back to normality.

We were expecting another race behind closed doors, but the Spanish authorities gave the green light earlier this week for some people to be allowed in. Let's all hope they have a great race to watch.

As always we want your thoughts, predictions and F1 jokes.

Tweet us using #bbcf1 to get involved.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton reached one huge landmark on Saturday with his 100th pole. Can he inch closer to another massive one today and take his 98th win?

He starts from the front of the grid at a race track on which 22 of the 30 races have been won from pole, and 27 of them from the front row, so his chances are decent. Not only that, but Mercedes’ race pace on the soft tyres on Friday afternoon was quicker than that of Max Verstappen - although the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was in the Mercedes’ ballpark.

Another close race is in prospect. Just don’t expect much overtaking on track this time.

This is how we start the race. An improved performance from Ferrari sees both drivers begin in the first six for the first time this season.

Esteban Ocon gets his best qualifying of the year and it's fifth for him.

From Canada in 2007 to Catalunya in 2021...

And this is how Lewis Hamilton marked the achievement on Twitter...

Lewis Hamilton has 32 more pole positions than any other driver in the history of F1 - and with loads of time to stretch that record further.

Unless we start having 50 races a season, it's hard to imagine anyone else ever getting to three figures.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton took a 100th career pole position by edging out Red Bull's Max Verstappen in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton's Mercedes was just 0.036 seconds faster than Verstappen, who was in turn 0.096secs ahead of the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc pulled out one of his trademark stellar laps on his last run to take fourth from Alpine's Esteban Ocon.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was sixth ahead of McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo.

The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez took eighth, nearly 0.8secs adrift of Verstappen, with McLaren's Lando Norris and Alpine's Fernando Alonso completing the top 10.

Full report

Hello, hope you're well.

I'm Michael Emons and welcome along to BBC Sport's coverage of the Spanish Grand Prix.

It's lights out at 14:00 BST and as always we've got you covered with live radio commentary.

Let's start off with a look back at yesterday's action and an incredible landmark.

After three races of the 2021 Formula 1 season, two men are standing head and shoulders above the rest.

Lewis Hamilton has two wins and one second place...

Image source, Getty Images

...and Max Verstappen has one win and two second places.

Image source, Getty Images

It's on to race four in Barcelona and it's F1's top two going head-to-head again. Hamilton on pole, Verstappen alongside him on the front row.