Lewis Hamilton was stripped of his pole position on Saturday for the Spanish Grand Prix for breaching Formula One rules.

Hamilton had stopped his McLaren on the track after qualifying, race stewards decided.

Williams’ Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado will start Sunday’s race from pole, while Hamilton was relegated to the back of the grid.

The Briton left it to his final flying lap to beat Maldonado by more than half a second for his third pole position of the season and 22nd of his career.

But he was forced to stop his car after crossing the line, with McLaren claiming their driver had insufficient fuel to return to the pits.

Governing body FIA ruled Hamilton was in breach of rules and he was “excluded” from qualifying results, culminating in his last-place start.

The 27-year-old 2008 world champion had earlier clocked a best lap of 1min 21.707sec to finish well clear of Maldonado.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso had initially claimed third place for Ferrari ahead of Frenchman Romain Grosjean and his Lotus teammate Kimi Raikkonen of Finland.

Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull was set to line up eighth and Australian teammate Mark Webber from 12th.