Formula 1 ®
Lando Norris denies Max pole position in Spain by 0.020 seconds, LCH finding his milieu with third George Russell fourth with the Ferraris on the third row.
Max Verstappen will start Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix from the front row after being edged out of pole position by McLaren driver Lando Norris. The three-time World Champion will start Sunday’s race from second as he seels to win at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for a record fourth time.
Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Pérez also reached Q3 and will hope make a fast start after qualifying in eighth position. Visa Cash App RB drivers Yuki Tsonda and Daniel Ricciardo will also hope to make early inroads after a tough qualifying session that saw them secure 17th and 18th respectively.
Verstappen said: “I think in qualifying it was all coming together a bit nicer. We have been trying to find the balance because the practice sessions have been difficult.
So I was quite happy in qualifying – I even got a nice little tow from Checo to Turn One to really extract everything we could. But unfortunately, it was just not enough. that is how it goes sometimes and overall we can still be very happy with this performance in qualifying and definitely all to play for tomorrow.”
McLaren’s Lando Norris pipped Max Verstappen’s Red Bull to pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix in a gripping qualifying session. Verstappen had appeared out of reach when he improved his own time, which was already fastest, by more than 0.2 seconds on his final run.
But Norris crossed the line a few seconds later to beat Verstappen and take his first pole of the year. And Lewis Hamilton out-qualified team-mate George Russell for only the second time this season as the Mercedes drivers took third and fourth.
Their performance underlined Mercedes’ re-emergence as contenders close to the front after a series of car developments as they beat the Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to fifth and sixth place, despite an upgrade on the Italian cars.
Norris, for whom this was a second career pole and his first for three years, said: “It was pretty much a perfect lap. You know when you’re on a good lap and you’re getting excited. Close still but super happy. I would say my best pole position. I’ve not had many but I’d say the best.
“We have been quick since Miami but missed out on pole by not doing a perfect lap and today we did a perfect lap.”
Lewis Hamilton
This is another encouraging result for us as a team. Everyone has been working so hard to bring updates and improvements to the car, making incremental gains and small steps over the season so far. We are starting to become more consistent too and that is huge for us. That is down to every member of the team putting in the extra hours and I want to say a big thank you to them. The car is getting more enjoyable to drive. Today, the gap was three tenths, but I think in reality it was less as we didn’t get everything out of the car on that last lap.
I am going into tomorrow focused on trying to fight for the win. We are in a good starting spot with that long run down to turn one. Degradation will also play a key role tomorrow and I think our long runs in practice looked strong in that respect. I hope that translates into Sunday and we can have a good afternoon.
Max Verstappen
“We made some good set up changes going into qualifying and the car was a lot better. I think we really maximised that and the car felt more connected and nice to drive. We were strong into the high speed and I felt really comfortable there and the high speed corners were really quick. We have had a clean weekend and have been fine tuning the car throughout the week. During the practice session I felt like we were not the quickest out there but qualifying felt really good.
McLaren were quick the whole weekend and we have been a little bit behind them, so we need to look at what we can do to optimise the performance tomorrow and be more competitive. Looking to tomorrow, I think it will be very tight; it will be about how we approach the tyres, especially with the high degradation. It will be a close and exciting race tomorrow. We need to analyse a few things but qualifying has been good so we can aim to fight for the win.”
Fernando
QUALIFYING P11
“It was very close in Qualifying today with just a few tenths between several cars. We were slightly pessimistic heading into the session, so I think we have to be quite pleased with tenth position for tomorrow’s race following Sergio’s [Perez] penalty. The support from the home fans has been amazing and I’m very thankful for this. While we would love to be fighting for something more, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow starting inside the top ten and try to maximise our race to score some points.”
