Lando Norris took the first pole position at Formula One’s newest circuit, the Madring, for the Spanish Grand Prix. The McLaren driver saw off a spirited assault by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who was second, with a superb lap at a circuit that has proved challenging to master and punishing on the slightest of errors. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in fourth and fifth for Ferrari and George Russell sixth for Mercedes.
McLaren had not appeared to have the car where they wanted right until the final lap of the final session when Norris put it on top for the first time, one-hundredth of a second clear of Antonelli. McLaren have now denied Mercedes the top spot three times this season, with Norris taking pole and wins in Hungary and Zandvoort. It is Norris’s second pole at the Spanish GP, having taken the top spot for the race in Barcelona in 2024, but it is a race he has yet to win.
It is the 19th pole of his career. The Mercedes duo of Antonelli and Russell went out first on the opening hot runs in Q3, but going into the final session Verstappen looked to be in good form, having been quickest in Q2. Antonelli opened strongly with a 1min 32.140sec lap.
The Ferraris were quick in his wake and Hamilton was immense to grab the top spot with 1:32.079. Verstappen followed, but could not nail the final sector and Hamilton remained on top. The final runs, with the track offering the most grip, kept all in the balance.
Mercedes were out first again, followed by Ferrari, with Verstappen once more at the back. Antonelli had the edge in the first sector and then once more quicker in the final sector, a full two-tenths up. Hamilton was not improving, but with his best lap of the weekend Norris had all but come from nowhere with an immense lap, including a slight kiss on the barrier at the final corner, to claim pole in 1:31.824.
After his outstanding victory from 19th on the grid at the last round in Monza, Antonelli leads Russell by 66 points in the championship, with Hamilton 76 points back in third place. It was a suitably tense, dramatic show for the first race here, which proceeded without incident despite there being some major crashes. The 3.365-mile circuit had been designed to be fast and a spectacle, but it is a challenging and, as some have intimated, dangerous test.
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