Barcelona, Aug 15 (IANS): The private battle between the two Mercedes drivers for the Spanish Grand Prix pole position ended with championship leader Lewis Hamilton edging ahead of Valtteri Bottas at a sweltering Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen meanwhile takes P3 in the Spanish GP that is scheduled for Sunday.

Just 0.059 seconds separated Hamilton and Bottas, thus making it the second week in a row that the pole position margin has been 0.063s or lower. This is Hamilton's fourth pole in six races and 92nd of his career. He also passed 150 front row starts.

Meanwhile, this is the first time that Verstappen has managed a top three start at the Spanish GP in his Formula 1 career.

Sergio Perez, who returned to his seat at Racing Point after recovering from COVID-19, picked up where he left off and will start at P4 on Sunday. His teammate Lance Stroll was 0.107s behind him and thus finished fifth.

The other Red Bull racer Alexander Albon rounded out the top six, but he was 0.5s adrift of teammate Verstappen in what was the biggest deficit between teammates involved in the top 10 shoot-out. Charles Leclerc was the leading Ferrari in ninth, with teammate Sebastian Vettel failing to make Q3 for the second race in succession.