Norris Claims Inaugural Spanish Grand Prix Pole Position at Madring

In qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, Lando Norris took pole position for his McLaren, outpacing Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on the very last laps of qualifying.

“Oh, what a lap, gorgeous,” said an ecstatic Norris after pipping world championship leader Antonelli by just 0.011 seconds. “Oh, that might be my best one.”

Verstappen was 0.140secs behind, with all three drivers bettering Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, which was fourth in Madrid.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton had set the early pace during the final qualifying session.

Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc was fifth, followed by George Russell’s Mercedes and McLaren driver Oscar Piastri.

Pole position was secured for Norris in a surprise move. He started fifth in the first session of qualifying, seventh in the second and 0.449secs slower than Hamilton in the first run in the third.

The world champion quoted by BBC Sport said: “I’m shocked. I’m a little bit surprised to be here. It was probably one of the best laps I’ve done ever in my career.

“One of those laps when everything came together. I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, it was whether it came together but my brain let me do it almost perfect. It’s one of those laps when you look at the time and go: ‘Oh, that was pretty good.”

“The adrenaline was high on the last lap,” he said. “You have to relax and let it all flow.

“It’s easy to get tense around here. There’s a lot of walls that come at you pretty quickly. I have been feeling pretty good, I just wasn’t relaxed.

“I was pretty much perfect apart from the last corner, where I thought I was in the wall. Everything I wanted to achieve I achieved and it’s one of those moments when I was in that flow state.”

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