Lewis Hamilton says his Spanish Grand Prix pole position lap was “needed” having not been fastest in a Formula 1 qualifying session since the 𓆏season-opener in Australia.

The Mercedes driver was fourth quickest and four-tenths of a second down on chief rival Sebastian Vettel after Q2, but set a blistering pair of laps in Q3 to seal his second pole of the seas♐on.

Hamilton ended up just 0.040s clear of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas during a tense end to Q3, with Vettel just 0.132s further back after finding improvement despite being on🅘 the theoretically-slower yellow-marked Soft compound.

“It was very close in qualifying and I am very𝓰 happy, I needed this pole as I’ve not had a pole for a while,” Hamilton said. “I was trying to go for every sector a record but I will take the middle one.”

"We’ve had one pole but I don’t think we’ve had any great qualifying sessions after that [in 2018] but it was important for me to get back into a ౠgood position with qualifying as it is a huge strength of mine so it is definitely important.

"I am happy considering I had such a good week coming into this weekend 🔯so to have the performance so I am very happy with that. For the team it has been a struggle.

"I’m sure there has been a lot of people no🔥t really understanding from the past few races so we’v🌠e been constantly learning. So to come here and get the 1-2 in qualifying is mark on the hard work everyone is doing."

Pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix marks Hamilton’s second pole in the space eight F1 ra💮ces while Mercedes’ domination in qualifying has been loosened in recent races by Ferrari as Sebastian Vettel produced a hat-trick of consecutive poles between Bahrain, China and Azerbaijan.