
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

















