Greg Biffle finished second and Brad Keselowski was third in the qualifying session, but they’ll start at the back after their Fords needed engine changes.

Although he ran early in a long qualifying session, Hamlin earned his first pole of the season and the 13th of his career. He won three last year, and has won the pole three times at Auto Club Speedway.

After his strong performance last year, Hamlin was confident his new Gen-6 race car would produce the same old results.

“These cars have different bodies on them, (but) they’re the same race cars we’ve been racing for a really long time, so everything pretty much correlated,” he said. “I love this racetrack. A lot of the reason is because it’s bumpy and it’s worn out. … You poll the drivers, this is one of the favorite racetracks we go to.”

Hamlin nicely shook off last week’s tumultuous performance in Bristol, where he exchanged contact with Joey Logano and eventually hit the wall in the closing laps, struggling to finish 23rd despite leading the most laps. Hamlin and Logano then had a confrontation after the race, with their teams briefly scuffling.

Biffle was right behind at 187.217 mph in his Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Keselowski was third, beating Kyle Busch’s 187.130 mph in fourth place.

But Biffle and Keselowski both had engine issues in practice, forcing them to start from the back. Given how well their cars performed with the new engines, neither driver seemed terribly concerned.

“That was a spectacular lap considering everything we did today,” Biffle said. “The guys worked really hard to get the engine changed. I got out with three minutes to go to make a lap, and we made adjustments from that lap and were able to put down a pretty fast lap. … We’re going to get a good pit stall for the race, and we’ll have to start at the back, so that’s unfortunate, but I’m proud of the car that we’re going to have for the race.”

Keselowski had his third top-10 time in five races this season, though he won’t get to enjoy it.

“I’m a little nervous about the engine issues the 16 and 2 cars both had in practice,” Keselowski said. “Hopefully those will subside for the race, and we’re both going to start in the back. … It’s unfortunate, but we will have a good time hopefully racing to the front.”

Defending champion Tony Stewart qualified eighth, and Mark Martin was ninth in front of Kurt Busch. Kasey Kahne, who won last week at Bristol, qualified 16th — right behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 15th and ahead of teammate Jimmie Johnson in 18th.

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Sevilla, who trailed 2-1 from the opening match, looked to be heading out of the competition when Diego Costa and Radamel Falcao gave their opponents the lead Wednesday night.

Jesus Navas gave the home side hope before the interval, but a red card for Gary Medel in the second half complicated matters further.

Ivan Rakitic’s eventual equalizer came too late for Sevilla, who also saw Geoffrey Kondogbia sent off in the dying seconds to cap a miserable evening.

With the rain lashing down at Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, Atletico were in front after just six minutes thanks to Costa, who held off the challenges of two defenders before drilling home from 10 yards out.

It took Sevilla 20 minutes to create its first meaningful chance, with Navas looping a ball to the far post where Medel headed narrowly wide.

And the miss came back to haunt them nine minutes later when Atletico scored again. Costa was at the heart of the move, whipping in a cross from the left to Falcao, who hit a first-time shot into the bottom right corner.

This time Sevilla managed to respond, and 10 minutes later Navas had added his name to the scoresheet, smashing home an angled shot off the right post following a cross from Jose Antonio Reyes.

That sparked a spell of pressure from the home side, and it should have been level three minutes before the interval but Rakitic failed to finish Medel’s assist and directed a header wide from an unmarked position.

Sevilla pushed again in the second half, but Alvaro Negredo was denied after 53 minutes by a parried save from visiting goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Moments later Costa should have put the match beyond doubt for Atletico, but he failed to make the most of his chance from a few yards out and, under pressure from a defender, poked a shot wide of the left post.

Sevilla’s evening took a further turn for the worse after 76 minutes when Medel was shown first a yellow card and then a red for dissent.

Atletico failed to finish off its opponents though, and Sevilla grabbed a late if immaterial equalizer in stoppage time when Kondogbia’s through ball found Rakitic, who finished right footed into the bottom corner.

The match then finished on a sour note for Kondogbia, who saw a straight red in the final seconds for bringing his foot down on Costa.

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Barca dominated possession for the first 25 minutes but was stunned when Odion Ighalo put the hosts ahead at the Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes.

Messi tapped in a deserved equalizer five minutes into the second half, though, and then curled in a free kick 17 minutes from time to complete the turnaround and move Barca 15 points clear at the summit.

Barca assistant coach Jordi Roura, still overseeing first-team affairs with head coach Tito Vilanova undergoing cancer treatment in New York, shuffled his pack for the game, restoring Dani Alves, Javier Mascherano, Sergio Busquets, Cesc Fabregas and Pedro Rodriguez to his lineup, with Xavi (thigh) and David Villa (ill) among those to miss out and Andres Iniesta only on the bench.

Granada was unchanged from the starting XI that won 3-0 at Deportivo La Coruna last weekend as it looked to continue its promising start — two wins in two games — under new coach Lucas Alcaraz.

Messi’s neat pass put Alexis Sanchez through on goal after four minutes, but Granada goalkeeper Tono was off his line quickly to smother the danger.

Former Barca B player Nolito had Granada’s first sight of goal three minutes later, with Victor Valdes gathering his side-footed volley at the second attempt.

Barca had a decent penalty shout waved away midway through the first half when Fabregas appeared to be clipped from behind by Gabriel Torje.

Alexis, who netted his first goal of the season in last weekend’s 6-1 thrashing of Getafe, was provided with another presentable chance by Messi but took too long and the threat was snuffed out by defender Diego Mainz.

Moments later, at the other end, the hosts showed their illustrious opponents how to apply the cutting edge in front of goal as they took a shock lead.

Carlos Aranda’s cross from the right was tapped back across goal by Nolito for Ighalo to stab home from close range — with Valdes and Barca defenders appealing in vain for offside.

The play soon switched back to Granada’s defensive third, where Adriano went within inches of finding an instant response. His superb effort with the outside of his left foot whistled just past the top corner.

Granada defender Guilherme Siqueira was lucky to be shown only a yellow card 12 minutes before halftime when he hauled Pedro to the ground as he looked to burst through.

Aranda should have made it 2-0 on the stroke of halftime after being gifted the ball on the edge of the Barca box by a sloppy defensive free kick by Thiago Alcantara, but Valdes made the save.

Just as it had done against Real Madrid a fortnight ago, Granada held the halftime lead. However, this time it lasted only five minutes into the second period.

Parity was restored when Messi pounced on the rebound to prod home after Tono could only parry a low Fabregas drive. It was the prolific Argentina forward’s 36th goal in La Liga this term — and meant he had scored in 14 straight games.

Alexis again pondered for too long on the ball when put through down the left by Fabregas, the Chilean getting the ball caught up in his feet as an unmarked Pedro cut a frustrated figure waiting for the cross.

That turned out to be Alexis’ last action as he was replaced by Cristian Tello.

Pedro went close to putting Barca ahead midway through the second half with a long-range blast that struck the inside of the left post and rebounded to safety with Tono beaten.

Seconds later, Barca had a goal correctly ruled out for offside. Tello threaded a pass through for Dani Alves, who crossed for Pedro to prod home but the flag was raised.

Iniesta was introduced in place of Pedro with 18 minutes remaining, and a minute later he was celebrating Messi’s second goal.

Thiago was fouled by Youssef El Arabi 25 yards from goal and the four-time Ballon d’Or winner stepped up to curl home a left-footed set-piece. Tono, diving to his right, got a hand to it but was unable to push it around the post.

Tello should have wrapped things up six minutes from time when he was on the end of a well-worked move, but lashed over the bar.

Granada substitute Yacine Brahimi was then denied a stoppage-time equalizer by Valdes after a slick one-two, and there was still time for Messi’s hat-trick attempt to be thwarted by Tono, but there were no further goals.

Also Saturday, a first half goal by Javier Saviola earned Malaga a 1-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao to ensure it will remain fourth in the table by the end of the weekend.

Lucas Piazon, on loan from Chelsea until the end of the season, made his first start for Malaga and marked the occasion by providing the assist for the only goal of the game.

The 19-year-old used skill and strength to advance into the Athletic area and pulled a pass back from the by-line into the path of Saviola near the penalty spot and the striker shot high into the net after 18 minutes.

Celta Vigo remained in the relegation zone after suffering its third defeat in a row on the road with a 3-1 loss to Getafe.

All the goals came in a frantic first half. Adrian Colunga opened the scoring for the hosts after 10 minutes but Augusto Fernandez equalized just 10 minutes later, before Diego Castro and then Federico Fernandez added goals of their own before the break.

An early goal by Kike Sola saw Osasuna earn itself some much-needed breathing space from the relegation zone with a 10 win over rival Real Zaragoza.

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Marco Reus gave Dortmund the lead after three minutes and Jakub Blaszczykowski doubled the advantage in the ninth minute from the spot. Stefan Reinartz scored a brace in the 58th and 62nd minutes to equalize only to see Robert Lewandowski make it 3-2 seconds later.

Blaszczykowski saw his second penalty attempt stopped in the 70th minute but Dortmund held on for the victory, its fourth in a row as it continues to trail Bayern by 12 points.

Leverkusen suffered its first Bundesliga loss at home this season as it dropped down to third.

Dortmund was without first-choice goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller, who missed the match with the flu and was replaced by Mitchell Langerak.

But the visitors grabbed the lead after just three minutes with Lewandowski sending a superb through ball for Reus, who hit a looping shot over Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno.

Leno then dragged down Lewandowski in the eighth minute for a Dortmund penalty which Blaszczykowski converted into the lower left corner to make it 2-0.

Leverkusen missed two chances to pull a goal back in the first half with Stefan Kiessling’s header going over the bar in the 14th minute and Andre Schurrle striking just high a minute before the break.

The hosts continued their push forward but were unable to use a double chance in the 50th minute with Langerak stopping Kiessling’s close-range shot and Dortmund defender Mats Hummels blocking Schurrle’s rebound attempt at the line.

Leverkusen finally made it 2-1 after 58 minutes as Kiessling looped the ball over the defense before Reinartz poked home from six yards.

Leverkusen equalized four minutes later from a set piece with Gonzalo Castro’s free kick going to Sebastian Boenisch, who headed it back across goal for Reinartz to nod home.

Dortmund answered right back in the 63rd minute with Philipp Wollscheid playing a poor back pass to Leno, who fended the ball away but right into the path of Lewandowski to give him an easy finish.

Dortmund missed a chance to re-establish the two-goal lead in the 70th minute as Leno held Blaszczykowski’s spot kick to the lower right corner after Boenisch took down Lewandowski.

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