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Red Bull will start in first and second positions after they translated their dominance in practice to qualifying. Mark Webber set a stunning time of 1:19.995 seconds to romp to poll position.
He is joined on the front grid by teammate Sebastian Vettel who was marginally slower. Red Bull are hoping to keep their dominance in Spain going and are well set to secure big points tomorrow.
McLaren will be pleased with their qualifying performance as Lewis Hamilton qualified in a respectable third place and fellow Brit Jenson Button will start in fifth. Both of these British drivers have started in worse positions this season and have still managed to finish strongly.
It was a more disappointing story for Ferrari. Fernando Alonso could only manage fourth position on his return to Spain. Alonso produced a very fast pace on certain points on the track but was not consistent enough to push the front-runners.
Felipe Massa had a very hard time of it and will start from ninth place tomorrow. This is not the end of the world, but a bad mistake on one of the final corners ultimately cost the Brazilian a higher starting grid place.
Michael Schumacher was able to out-qualify his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg for the first time this season, proving he still has the know how to compete with the best in the sport.
Schumacher starts in sixth with Rosberg two places back in eighth. The real test will come during the race for Mercedes as they have struggled to make a car last an entire race despite some excellent qualifying displays this season.
Elsewhere on the grid there was a solid performance from Robert Kubica. Kubica set a time of 1:21.353 for his Renault team, which earns him seventh place on the grid for the start of the race tomorrow.
Spanish fans would have been keeping a close eye on drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Jaime Alguersuari on their returns to their home country. De la Rosa did well to battle his way to start twelfth on the grid even though he is in a far weaker BMW Sauber-Ferrari car.
Alguersuari managed to secure fifteenth place in his Torro-Rosso but it will be difficult for him to stretch out his race plan tomorrow and finish in higher position by the end of the race.
Adrian Sutil was being predicted to make a break though for Force India within the next few races. Sutil has performed solidly for the under rated team so far this season but missed the top ten and will start in eleventh tomorrow.
Sutil managed to match the pace of Massa, Schumacher and Kubica at times during the three qualifying sessions but he had to ease off at various points in order to preserve the tyres on the car ahead of the race.
