McLaren driver Lando Norris delivered a spellbinding lap at the death to edge out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to take pole position for Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Norris clocked a 1:11.383s on his final run to land his second career pole, 0.020 seconds quicker than Verstappen, with Lewis Hamilton placing his Mercedes in third.
The anticipation going into qualifying was higher than ever as less than a tenth covered the Ferrari duo and Norris’ McLaren during the third and final practice session.
Charles Leclerc would stamp his and Ferrari’s mark on proceedings from the outset to top the leaderboard in Q1 prior to the final runs in the opening 18-minute stage.
However, all the attention was on the back and which drivers would be going to a premature exit, with Daniel Ricciardo on the precipice as the clock continued to tick.
Alex Albon managed to give Williams hopes at escaping elimination from Q1 as he set a 1:13.153s with three minutes remaining to drop Ricciardo into the drop zone.
But the pace continued to ramp up and Albon was demoted to the back row along with team-mate Logan Sargeant, who revealed his new floor was “underperforming”.
Lance Stroll avoided being knocked out as half a tenth separated him and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, with Yuki Tsunoda and Ricciardo resigned to shock exits in the RB.
The Faenza-based squad brought a considerable update package to this weekend’s race, leaving the side to go back to the drawing board amid the drivers’ confusion.
Back at the top, the chances that there would be a tight contest in the pole position shootout increased as fewer than two-tenths covered first through to third places.
Zhou Guanyu progressed his Sauber into the second stage for the first time in 2024, but the rapturous Spanish crowd was much more concerned with Sainz on track.
However, the Chinese racer ended up slowest in Q2, five-tenths down on Sauber team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was eliminated along with Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg.
But the biggest groans from the crowd arrived when Fernando Alonso was unable to haul his Aston Martin into Q3, with both Alpine drivers advancing at his expense.
Meanwhile, Verstappen ended Q2 with the fastest time, but Hamilton and George Russell were poised to challenge him as the Mercedes pairing came in next fastest.
Norris and Sainz completed the top five in Q2 and made it four machines covered by only 0.221s, with Leclerc unable to replicate his Q1 lap and lagging back in sixth.
The pole-sitting hopefuls posted their initial runs but sat behind Verstappen, who set a benchmark of 1:11.673s, 0.123s ahead of Norris, with Hamilton 0.143s back.
With two minutes to go the field returned to the track for their final push laps and Piastri, staring at a 10th-place grid position found himself in the gravel in the final sector and ended his pursuit for pole.
Verstappen looked odds on for pole when he posted his 1:11.403s effort, but the #4 papaya McLaren driven by Norris was the weapon of choice on Saturday with the Brit taking the last laugh right at the death.
Hamilton was 0.318s back in third position, out-qualifying his Mercedes team-mate George Russell for just the second time this season, who finished fourth, 0.320s back from pole.
Leclerc led the Ferrari effort in fifth ahead of Sainz with the Ferrari duo finishing 0.348s and 0.335s off of the ultimate pace respectively.
Pierre Gasly finished a mightily impressive seventh for Alpine with Sergio Perez a Red Bull filling in a French sandwich as Esteban Ocon posted the ninth fastest time.
Piastri’s error in Q3 resigned him to 10th.
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