The defending Formula 1 world champion Lando Norris achieved his third pole of the season for the Spanish Grand Prix, beating championship points leader Kimi Antonelli on a brand new Madring circuit.
With a final attempt, Norris took a small margin of 0.011 seconds out of Antonelli’s benchmark to defeat Mercedes its fourth consecutive qualifying session.
It was Formula 1’s first-ever qualifying session at Madring, a challenging 5.4km circuit featuring a mixture of street sections and a high-speed purpose-built loop with little runoff areas.
But despite worries qualifying would be derailed by crashes and traffic, the session took place without any issues.
In the deciding Q3 shootout, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton led the way after the first series of runs with a time of one minute, 32.079 seconds lap, ahead of Mercedes duo Antonelli and George Russell, and his teammate Charles Leclerc.
Red Bull had also shown competitiveness throughout qualifying, with Max Verstappen another contender for pole, but the four time champion slipped up at the end of his first flying lap and settled for fifth ahead of the Papayas.
Heading out first of the frontrunners, Antonelli took over top spot from Hamilton with a time of one minute, 31.835 seconds effort, which most of his rivals did not have an answer for. But Norris did, drifting out of the final corner to set a time of one minute, 31.824 seconds to take pole.
Verstappen was third on a surprisingly competitive outing for Red Bull after the team had struggled earlier in the weekend, with Ferrari duo Hamilton and Leclerc in fourth and fifth. Russell could only manage sixth followed by Oscar Piastri. Liam Lawson, Franco Colapinto and Arvid Lindblad completed the top ten.
Earlier in the session, Russell led the way in Q1, beating teammate Antonelli at the end of the session by 0.056 seconds as he survived a tap with the wall.
Red Bull looked particularly competitive in Q1, with Lawson a close third on softs and Verstappen was fourth on the medium tyres, allowing Max to save a set of softs for later on. Ferrari drivers Hamilton and Leclerc followed the same strategy as they each claimed a top seven position.
It was the usual players at the bottom of the timesheets, with Williams once again on the edge of a Q2 spot. Albon beat teammate and home favourite Carlos Sainz by a tiny margin of 0.005 seconds to go through into Q2 ticket with P16, the Williams driver bouncing back from a tap with the wall in FP3 which forced him to sit out the majority of the session.
Sainz is ahead of his fellow countryman Fernando Alonso, who managed P18 for Aston Martin. Cadillac’s Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas finished at the bottom of the twenty cars setting a lap time, with Bottas unable to complete a clean lap after being impeded by Sainz.
Qualifying got underway without Haas driver Oliver Bearman. A “gutted” Bearman suffered a heavy crash at the end of third practice session, as Haas faced an impossible battle to restore the car in time for qualifying.
Lance Stroll was the other driver not to set a lap time on the Madring circuit due to what Aston Martin called a suspected water pressure issue. He is set for a back-of-the-grid penalty anyway for exceeding his Honda power unit allowance for the season.
Spanish Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.824
2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:31.835
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:31.964
4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:32.013
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:32.019
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:32.149
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:32.294
8 Liam Lawson Red Bull-Ford 1:32.316
9 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:32.903
10 Arvid Lindblad Red Bull-Ford 1:33.041
11 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:33.223
12 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:33.388
13 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:33.667
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:33.753
15 Yuki Tsunoda Racing Bulls-Ford 1:34.084
16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:35.532
17 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:35.312
18 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:35.388
19 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:35.913
20 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:38.011
21 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari No time
22 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda No time*
*Grid penalty for changing power unit
Lando Norris charged to pole position for the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring with a spectacular last-gasp effort, beating Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to the top spot.
In a remarkably close conclusion to Q3, the reigning World Champion displaced all of his rivals with a time of 1m 31.824s, mastering the brand-new circuit to clinch his 19th career pole position.
Lewis Hamilton had been the driver to provisionally take P1 after the first runs before he dropped to P4, leading Charles Leclerc and the second Mercedes of George Russell.
Oscar Piastri endured another frustrating deficit to his McLaren team mate as he finished in seventh place, with Liam Lawson, Franco Colapinto and Arvid Lindblad – who had suitably recovered from his earlier crash in FP2 – rounding out the top 10 qualifiers.
Despite featuring towards the front throughout the weekend, Audi failed to make it into Q3, with Nico Hulkenberg settling for P11 in front of his team mate Gabriel Bortoleto.
Just behind, Esteban Ocon beat his compatriot and last week’s polesitter Pierre Gasly to P13, followed by Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda and the lead Williams of Alex Albon.
It was a less than satisfactory day for the home crowd as Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were both eliminated in the opening phase of Qualifying, with the former also set to be investigated for an impeding incident.
They finished the session just ahead of the Cadillac duo of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, who was the driver allegedly blocked by Sainz. Neither Ollie Bearman nor Lance Stroll made it onto the track as Haas were unable to repair the Briton’s car after his FP3 crash, while the Aston Martin driver was restricted to the garage thanks to a suspected water pressure issue.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-denies-antonelli-pole-position-for-spanish-gp-in-closely-fought-qualifying-in-madrid.5AqJXaE8s1sLfv8dJVLqty
Lando Norris admitted that he was “shocked” by his pole position in Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, with the Briton hailing the performance as “one of the best laps I’ve done ever in my career”.
The start of the weekend had not gone entirely smoothly for Norris, the World Champion having missed out on running during Friday’s second practice session following a gearbox issue on his car.
Things went better on Saturday, however, culminating in a surge to pole in Q3 with a lap time of 1m 31.824s, which put Norris 0.011s clear of championship leader Kimi Antonelli – a showing that even the man himself was not expecting.
“I’m shocked,” the McLaren driver said. “I’m a little bit surprised to be here now, but my god it was probably one of the best laps I’ve done ever in my career. Very, very happy, very proud, very happy for the team.
“It was just one of those laps where everything came together. I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, but it was whether my brain let me do it on the last lap and everything pretty much worked perfectly.
“I’m just very happy – one of those laps where you look at the lap time at the end and you’re like, ‘Oh, s*** that was pretty good’.”
Reflecting on the feeling of putting such a lap in around the new Madring circuit, Norris explained: “The adrenaline was high on the last lap. It’s just one where you’ve got to relax, just let it all flow.
“It’s easy to get tense around here, and there are a lot of walls that come at you pretty quickly. Honestly I’ve been feeling pretty confident and the car was feeling good, so I felt good out there.
“I just wasn’t doing what I wanted – I wasn’t quite relaxed, and on the last lap just took a good breath and everything kind of came together.
“It was pretty much perfect, bar the last corner – I thought I was in the wall, and I thought the boys were going to have to repair the car tonight. It could have been a little bit better, but nonetheless it was one of the best laps I’ve done.
“Just everything that I wanted to achieve I achieved, and that’s one of moments where you’re kind of in that flow state and it puts a big smile on my face, so I’m happy.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/norris-shocked-by-pole-position-in-madrid-as-he-reflects-on-one-of-the-best-laps-ive-done-ever.5doHkyflrsYEFZAopuwgdZ
Lewis Hamilton believes himself and Ferrari have “got to work harder” in order to increase performance, having missed out on pole position for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The Briton headed into Qualifying on the back foot after crashing head-on into the barrier at the final corner in Free Practice 3, eventually stopping his damaged car after calls from the team to pull over on the way back to the pits.
The missed track time earlier on Saturday didn’t seem to hamper the seven-time World Champion, though, and Hamilton sat on provisional pole position after the first flying laps in the pivotal Q3 session.
But Hamilton slipped down to fourth in the final reckoning despite improving his time and finishing less than two tenths behind polesitter, Lando Norris.
“The only thing to say about FP3 is nothing. Qualifying was pretty decent,” said Hamilton when asked to reflect on his day.
“Generally been feeling pretty decent. It takes everything for us to be able to compete with the two powerhouse motors [Mercedes and McLaren] ahead.
“They just seem to be able to turn the engine up or something when we get to Qualifying which we can’t match. We’ve got to work harder.”
Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc finished directly behind Hamilton and was also within two tenths of Norris’ top time, with the Monegasque believing he over-drove in the final segment of Qualifying.
“I think the lap was pretty good in Q3, it’s a tricky Qualifying where you’ve got to go fully committed into Q3 and I did that,” he said.
“But I felt like I maybe went over the limit a little in some corners and lost a little bit on top of maybe losing down the straights a bit because of running the older spec [engine].
“But at the end, that’s on me. I think we did a good job today and we maximised our potential.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/weve-got-to-work-harder-hamilton-reflects-on-missing-out-on-pole-position-in-spanish-grand-prix-qualifying.6OyJbnDX4jZNmwbv3Hjrf3
George Russell has explained his poor qualifying performance in Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix, having ended up a lowly sixth while Mercedes team-mate and title rival Kimi Antonelli took second.
Russell set the pace in Q1 at Madrid’s new street circuit but failed to improve as significantly as his opponents in the next two segments. He was sixth-quickest, some three tenths down on his team-mate, in both Q2 and Q3.
But could this be linked to Russell brushing the wall with his front-left tyre in Q1, in very similar way to the incident that ended Alex Albon’s running in FP3 due to damage?
“I don’t think so, because my following lap in Q1 we were quicker,” the Briton told Sky Sports F1.
He added, speaking to the written press: “Obviously, I was slightly concerned in the moment, but the car was fine. I went out on top of the session afterwards and then felt in the mix thereafter.
“But just the last lap, I was about three tenths up, tried pushing hard in Turn 11, the tyres couldn’t take it, and then [I] lost all the lap time thereafter. So that was a bit annoying.”
“It’s a really tough circuit,” he also told Sky. “You almost need to drive a little bit below the limit, then extract that last little bit, and that cost me today.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/george-russell-explains-what-went-wrong-in-q3-at-madring/10855083/
Carlos Sainz has been handed a grid penalty for the Spanish Grand Prix after a Qualifying infringement.
The Williams driver was found to have impeded Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac during Saturday’s Qualifying session through Turn 7 in the final minutes of Q1.
Sainz initially qualified P17 for Sunday’s 57-lap race, the first to be held at the Madring, while Bottas was left in P20 as neither progressed through to the second part of Qualifying.
The stewards heard from both Sainz and Bottas post-session, as well as looking at on-board videos and data before making their decision.
They noted that: “The team failed to inform the driver of Car 55 about Car 77 closing in on a flying lap and the driver did not take any action to make way for the incoming car.
It added: “The Stewards determine that Car 55 unnecessarily impeded Car 77”, and handed Sainz a penalty for his home race.
“Not a very clean session, two or three issues that cost us probably there at the end, five-milliseconds to get through to Q2,” said Sainz before the post-Qualifying penalty.
“A combination of just lacking a bit of performance on the straights. After looking at that lap, a couple of tenths.
“Then going very early for the last run and also impeding Valtteri, I just heard we impeded him without any notice from the pit wall.
“Not our cleanest session. Still did a pretty good lap but unfortunately not enough to make it through to Q2.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/sainz-handed-grid-penalty-for-spanish-gp-after-qualifying-infringement.4yL2CwTMI2kOZGXlPZsTtr