Tag: Spanish GP

Alonso inspired Russell’s charge to the front in Barcelona

George Russell says he prepared for the chance to take the lead from fourth place at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix, inspired by Fernando Alonso doing similar in 2011. 13 years ago, Alonso – then driving for Ferrari – went from fourth to first …

George Russell says he prepared for the chance to take the lead from fourth place at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix, inspired by Fernando Alonso doing similar in 2011.

13 years ago, Alonso – then driving for Ferrari – went from fourth to first at Turn 1 of his home race by getting down the inside of both Red Bull drivers. This year, Russell made similar ground but by going to the outside of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen at the first corner, and says it was a move he had been preparing for in the laps to the grid having investigated the likely weather conditions overnight.

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“I was kind of dreaming of it [on Saturday] night and what my plan of attack was,” Russell said. “I saw the weather forecast and the wind had shifted to a headwind in Turn 1, which I knew meant I could brake really late and deep into the corner.

“When I was racing karts, I always remember watching Fernando here in 2011, starting P4 and getting into the lead. So, I always knew it was possible.

“It was calculated risk. I did four laps to the grid and I practiced braking as late as possible on every single lap. So I knew where the limit was, I knew how strong the wind was and I knew what was possible with the car So, it was calculated risk and I was satisfied that we pulled it off.”

Russell eventually finished back in his starting position of fourth behind Verstappen, Norris and Lewis Hamilton, and admits it was a somewhat frustrating result given where he’d ended the opening lap.

“I think just a few small things went against us. The slow pit stop then put us on the back foot in the middle stint and under a bit of pressure. And then lost a lot of time fighting with Lando, pitting onto the hard tire – that was pretty rubbish, but it protected the P3 and P4 as a team and that’s what we were kind of aiming for.

“We knew the hard was not going to be a great tire but we wanted to split the risk between Lewis and I because I think if we extended, we potentially could have been under threat from Charles [Leclerc] behind. So, as a team, it reduced the risk.

“Obviously, I felt a little bit disappointed not being on the podium but I was there last week, Lewis did a great job and as a team, we’re taking the positives away from what’s been a really promising couple of races.”

Hamilton feels Mercedes’ gap is smaller to top two than it appears

Lewis Hamilton says he would have been closer to the top two in the Spanish Grand Prix if he had not had a poor start that left him fighting back onto the podium. George Russell took the lead from fourth on the grid at the start of Sunday’s race, …

Lewis Hamilton says he would have been closer to the top two in the Spanish Grand Prix if he had not had a poor start that left him fighting back onto the podium.

George Russell took the lead from fourth on the grid at the start of Sunday’s race, with Hamilton initially slipping back from third to be behind the two Ferrari drivers. While he quickly cleared both on the opening lap, he was behind his teammate until the final stint when a difference in strategy helped Hamilton pass Russell and finish just under 18s behind race winner Max Verstappen.

“I have to say a big thank you to the team, because they’ve been training so hard in the pit stops,” Hamilton said. “The strategy in the pit stops was really on point. Unfortunately, a bit like Lando [Norris], I got a really bad start and obviously lost ground to the Ferraris, so it was a bit of a battle to get back to where I am now.

“I think ultimately, with a better start, we would have… I don’t know if we could have really held on to the guys ahead, but I don’t think we would have been as far behind as we are today.”

Hamilton’s strategy also saw him having to overtake Carlos Sainz at one stage and the close battle led to the Ferrari driver complaining he’d been forced off track at Turn 1. The stewards opted against an investigation, and Hamilton says he understands Sainz’s complaints but that he’d left enough room for him to still make the next corner.

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“It’s never a good feeling when you do get overtaken,” he said. “I think we had a nice tight battle into Turn 1. I left him some room, so I think he was still on the track. Ultimately, he left the door open on the inside, didn’t fully close it, and so I went for the inside and tried to make the corner. I think he came around. I think we touched wheels equally and nothing major. It was like a small scrub and I gave him some room on the exit.”

Third place marks Hamilton’s first podium of the season, and he says it’s the product of ongoing improvements both from the Mercedes car but also in the execution of his own weekend.

“We definitely are [building momentum],” he said. “We’re definitely getting more consistent, and if I can just get my qualifying to be like this weekend, then it makes the Sunday so much easier. Also, if you get a good start…

“My Saturdays have been so bad for the last, like, 15 races, so it’s good to have a clean weekend. Hopefully this puts us in a good position to challenge in the next few races.”

Red Bull executing but struggling for outright pace – Verstappen

Max Verstappen says Red Bull is struggling for outright pace but managing to execute races better than its rivals at present after winning the Spanish Grand Prix. Lando Norris took pole position in Barcelona but dropped to third at the start as …

Max Verstappen says Red Bull is struggling for outright pace but managing to execute races better than its rivals at present after winning the Spanish Grand Prix.

Lando Norris took pole position in Barcelona but dropped to third at the start as George Russell took an early lead, before Verstappen quickly cleared the Mercedes. With Norris stuck for the entire first stint, Verstappen built up enough of a buffer that meant Norris fell 2.2s short when chasing down the Red Bull, as McLaren showed itself to have the quickest car in race trim.

“I think we are struggling a little bit for that outright pace, it felt like,” Verstappen said. “Plus, I feel like we didn’t have the best tire life today compared to Lando. It just seemed like he could push a bit more in some corners.

“We were a bit upset at one point with the tires as well, because he went a bit longer in the first stint. We still optimize everything. I mean, I can’t really say that we did something wrong in the race, but we just need to try and find more performance.”

Although not immediately taking the lead, Verstappen says the opening laps when he cleared both Norris and then Russell proved to be the deciding factor as time lost in traffic proved too big for Norris to overcome.

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“It wasn’t straightforward,” he said. “At the start, I think it was quite critical to get ahead of Lando, looking at it now. Of course, at the time, you just tried to do what you think is best… Then also what was very important was getting ahead of George, so that first stint I could eke out a bit of a gap. That all worked well.

“We were quite aggressive on the strategy, as a team, with our pit stops, so I think as a whole package, performance, we had a good race. We really tried to maximize everything, but I do think that we’re struggling a bit for the optimum pace, lacking a bit of tire deg towards the end of every stint.

“It wasn’t a very straightforward, easy race. Lando was catching quite hard at the end, but luckily it worked out that it was just enough.”

With Norris noted but not investigated for forcing Verstappen off track at the start, and then stating he felt he left enough room, the Dutchman says he wasn’t overly upset with his rival’s defending.

“I think I know his birthday present already — it’s either a big mirror or some glasses, and it will be fine!” Verstappen joked. “It’s OK. I mean, it’s hard racing for sure. If you turn it around, would I have done the same? I probably would have done the same. You always try to squeeze it to the limit.

“I also really wanted to avoid potential contact because you don’t want to rub wheels and potentially damage your suspension, so you naturally leave probably a few centimeters extra. Those few extra centimeters meant that I had to go a little bit on the grass. Luckily, with doing that, nothing happened, so it’s all good — we still had a good run to Turn 1.”

Sainz picked wrong driver to be ‘a bit spectacular’ with – Leclerc

Charles Leclerc says Carlos Sainz was not following the strategy given by Ferrari when trying to “do something a bit spectacular” in overtaking his teammate early in the Spanish Grand Prix. Sainz went round the outside of Leclerc into Turn 1 to take …

Charles Leclerc says Carlos Sainz was not following the strategy given by Ferrari when trying to “do something a bit spectacular” in overtaking his teammate early in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Sainz went round the outside of Leclerc into Turn 1 to take fifth place in the opening laps, squeezing the other Ferrari at the apex and causing light contact that saw the Spaniard run wide but retain the place. Leclerc says that went against the plan for looking after tires early in the race and he feels Sainz was trying to make a statement in front of his home crowd but shouldn’t have done so on his teammate.

“We had a clear strategy at the beginning of the race with the team to both save tires to attack late on,” Leclerc said. “However, Carlos on that lap didn’t do any saving in Turn 14 and of course had an opportunity to overtake in Turn 1, which is a bit of a shame because we lost time between us. I damaged my front wing because of Carlos making the turn, not seeing that I was on the inside and that makes our race more difficult. But it wouldn’t have changed the end result significantly.

“I didn’t understand the point of doing that when it was clearly stated before the race that we had to save in this part of the race. It’s a bit unnecessary, but I also understand that I guess it’s his home race, and it’s also an important moment of his career, so I guess he wanted to do something a bit spectacular, but I probably wasn’t the right person to do that with.”

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The two drivers swapped positions later on as Leclerc chased George Russell to the flag — finishing 0.3s behind the Mercedes — but he was less concerned about the incident impacting his chances of finishing higher than fifth.

“When you look at how close we finished with George in front, there’s always things we can do better, but we just didn’t have enough pace to do anything better today.”

Sainz also had another incident that saw him run slightly wide at Turn 1 as Lewis Hamilton overtook him on the inside, and he was unhappy that the stewards allowed the move to stand.

“I felt like he ran me off the track,” Sainz said. “I was half a car length ahead, and normally the rule this year says that if you’re ahead around the outside, they need to give you space, if you have half a car ahead. That’s normally what the stewards have ruled this year.

“So I was trying to benefit from that rule, because that’s how they’ve ruled up until now. I’m not saying he was racing hard or not hard — just trying to apply the rule that the stewards have applied all season.”

Norris laments missed opportunity: ‘We should have won today’

Lando Norris says McLaren had clearly the quickest car in the Spanish Grand Prix but that his poor start prevented an impressive race from being rewarded with victory. The polesitter was trying to hold off Max Verstappen after being slightly slower …

Lando Norris says McLaren had clearly the quickest car in the Spanish Grand Prix but that his poor start prevented an impressive race from being rewarded with victory.

The polesitter was trying to hold off Max Verstappen after being slightly slower away at the start, when George Russell swept around the pair of them to take the lead. Norris was third at that stage as Verstappen quickly cleared Russell, and his own inability to pass the Mercedes in the first stint led to a gap opening up that proved just too large to erase, as Norris closed in but finished 2.2 seconds behind Verstappen at the flag.

“The race… not good enough, simply because we should have won today,” Norris said. “I think we had the quickest car. But I just lost it at the start, and then I couldn’t get past George for the first stint. I think we quite easily had the best car out there today, I just didn’t do a good enough job off the line, and then that one thing cost me everything.

“From Turn 2 onwards, 10 out of 10, I don’t think I could have done much more and I think as a team, we did the perfect strategy. I was very happy with what we did. But yeah, the one part of the start wasn’t good enough.”

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Norris says Spain is far more frustrating than the missed opportunity in Montreal where McLaren failed to take advantage of a safety car period when the British driver was leading.

“Yeah, for sure, because that was more a decision, an incorrect decision or a lack of decision-making. We were definitely not the quickest car in Montreal, Mercedes was easily the quickest car. Today we were the quickest,” he said. “I had a nice car out there and I didn’t maximize it. The start is down to me and doing what I got told, and executing that. Without that, or with a good start, we easily should have won. “

The final stint saw Norris closing an eight-second deficit to Verstappen at around half a second per lap, and he says he believed he could get close right up until the final laps.

“I was feeling good at that point. It was more, could I close the gap in the amount of laps that I had, which was going to be the bigger question and the question on my mind while driving,” Norris related. “I was comfortable and the pace was very strong at that rate. It wasn’t the longest final stint, so I didn’t know if we were going to get to that time in the stint when I really start to catch.

“The last three laps, the gaps were pretty big in terms of how much it was coming down. It’s a hard one — I don’t know if I maybe pushed too much in the beginning and struggled a bit too much in the end. It’s very difficult to judge these things. Difficult to describe.

“I was confident in the car, which is the main thing — I understood how to drive it and get the most out of it. I think I’m still improving in that area; that’s something I’ve not been super comfortable with, the knowledge of how do I extract the most out of this car.

“This weekend has been a very good step forward, I think. Hopefully I’d love to carry that on into the next few. But I’m confident, and those parts of the race I’m like ‘OK, I have clean air, I can push, and as long as I hopefully get a couple of DRS from backmarkers, hopefully they can help me out a little bit to try and catch.’”

Verstappen resists Norris for seventh win of the season in Spain

Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix from second on the grid after pole-getter Lando Norris lost time embroiled in a battle with the Mercedes drivers for a spot on the podium. Norris’s afternoon began to unravel from lights out, when a slow …

Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix from second on the grid after pole-getter Lando Norris lost time embroiled in a battle with the Mercedes drivers for a spot on the podium.

Norris’s afternoon began to unravel from lights out, when a slow start dropped him behind Verstappen, who went down his inside at the first turn.

But both were caught off-guard by George Russell, who had picked up a significant slipstream from the second row of the grid to slingshot his way into the lead around the outside of the first turn.

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The Mercedes driver wasn’t long in the lead, however. Needing to push significantly harder than the rest just to stay ahead, he succumbed to Verstappen sweeping around his outside at the first turn with the assistance of DRS beforehand.

The Dutchman was rapid in clear air and quickly moved beyond DRS range. Norris, unable to find a way past Russell, was stuck in a difficult position and needed to make a decision.

The Briton goaded his team into making an ambitious strategy choice. Russell stopped on lap 15, Lewis Hamilton behind him pitted on the following lap and Verstappen took new tire on lap 17.

Norris, however, stayed out, gambling on a deep tire offset to regain him the lead rather than playing it safe to secure second.

The McLaren driver waited until lap 23 to pit. He dropped to sixth on the road behind Carlos Sainz, Hamilton, and then Russell, his gap to Verstappen more than 11s. Sainz proved relatively easily picking, but Hamilton was more obstinate, with Norris unable to barge past him until lap 32.

Russell put up an even greater fight, forcing Norris into a long duel through the first sector. Norris first got around Russell’s outside at Turn 3, with Russell responding around the outside of Turn 4.

Norris eventually go the final word with a switchback at Turn 5 to win the inside line at Turn 7. But the time it had taken him to return to second had been too costly. He made up around only 3s on the leader in those 12 laps, leaving him with 9s still to close on tires now past their best.

The margin shrank to less than 5s by the time Verstappen stopped again on lap 45, but the damage had been done.

Norris was left out for only two more laps before making his final tire change. It ensured he kept ahead of Russell and Hamilton, who had stopped on earlier laps, but left him without a meaningful tire offset with which to pursue the lead.

It was an effective declaration of defeat, and though he pushed Verstappen hard in the final stint, the Dutchman was easily equal to the challenge, taking the flag with a margin of 2.2s.

“I think what made the race was the beginning,” he said. “I took the lead on [lap 3], and that’s where I had my buffer, then in the first stint I could eke out the gap a bit. After that I had to drive a defensive race.

“Once I was in the lead, I could look after my tires a bit better. That definitely made my race today.”

Norris was disappointed not to convert pole to victory, believing his McLaren was the quickest car of the day.

“Not could (have won), should have done,” he said. “I got a bad start, simple as that.

“The car was incredible today. I think we were for sure the quickest. I just lost it at the beginning. A lot of positive, one negative, and that ruined everything.”

Lewis Hamilton won the intrateam Mercedes battle by finishing third for his first podium of the season. Hamilton benefitted from Russell being lumbered with the uncompetitive hard tire in this final stint, exaggerating his pace on his race-ending set of softs, but said the result was more important for the team’s progress than for either individual driver.

“It’s been a good day – a good weekend a solid weekend,” he said. “I have to say a bit thank you to the team. The strategy and the pit stops were really on point.”

Russell held off a late charge from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver using his softs in the final stint to menace the Mercedes to the flag.

Sainz followed Leclerc home after suffering the hard tire in the final stint, undoing a robust move he put on his teammate at the start of the race that saw the two scarlet cars make light contact at the first turn.

Oscar Piastri executed a quiet race from ninth to seventh, a long way ahead of the three-stopping Sergio Perez, who made up three places from his penalized 11th on the grid.

Pierre Gasly led home teammate Esteban Ocon in ninth and 10th for Alpine’s second consecutive double points finish.

Nico Hulkenberg led home Fernando Alonso, Zhou Guanyu and Lance Stroll.

Daniel Ricciardo led the way for RB, but the upgraded VCARB-01 was good enough for only 15th ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon, the Williams driver having started from pit lane to take a new power unit.

Yuki Tsunoda finished 19th ahead of Logan Sargeant at the back of a field featuring no retirements.

Norris rates ‘perfect’ pole lap as among his best ever

Lando Norris described his pole position lap at the Spanish Grand Prix as “perfect” and likely the best he has ever done in his career after beating Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver had been on provisional pole position and had extended his …

Lando Norris described his pole position lap at the Spanish Grand Prix as “perfect” and likely the best he has ever done in his career after beating Max Verstappen.

The Red Bull driver had been on provisional pole position and had extended his advantage over the field to over 0.3s with his final lap, but Norris came through to take the second pole of his career by just 0.020s. Only a few hours earlier Norris had been left without his shoes due to a fire in the McLaren motorhome, but he says his performance was up with his best-ever laps.

“It feels great — poles always feel good and it’s my second one in my career,” Norris said. “I’ve had two sprint race poles, but I don’t regard that at all as a pole position. So this is my second one of my career. Been a while since Sochi [in 2021], all the way back then.

“It feels great. It was an amazing lap — honestly it was my best lap by a long way. I pretty much put the whole lap together, so I got a nice slipstream. It was probably my best corner around the lap, every single part of it put together.

“Max was a bit ahead in Q1 and Q2, and I knew I had to do something perfect in Q3 to do it, and that’s exactly what I did, so pretty happy that I managed to pull off my best lap that I’ve done, probably ever.

“I’m probably going to get back and Jarv [Andrew Jarvis], my engineer, is going to tell me that I messed something up. But I think it’s so tricky nowadays, with the car and the tires, and we’re pushing so much to just put everything together.

“You might be able to do half of it once and half another, or mix it up, but to kind of put all of it right at that limit is very tricky and I’m sure every driver would say the same. Very rewarding when you do, and when you do it and end up on pole because of it, it’s even sweeter.”

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Red Bull had been favorite heading into the weekend and Verstappen still lines up alongside Norris on the front row, but the Briton is confident there’s a wide-open fight for victory among the top four teams in store at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday.

“I don’t have any concerns. I’m excited,” he said. “It’s a long run down to Turn 1 — it’s probably one of the places that you don’t want to start on pole. It’s an opportunity for us to go out and try and win a race.

“We’ve not done loads of long running; we’ve done a bit, and I think we were close as it always has been. I think tomorrow’s not like this car is quicker or way quicker. I think between Mercedes, ourselves, Red Bull, Ferrari, there’s eight cars that could probably have been on pole today and have a chance of probably winning the race tomorrow.

“It’s about making the least mistakes, similar to today, and just trying to execute another good race that we normally do.”

Norris says the earlier fire had no real impact on his preparations, with his main focus being on the fact that nobody was hurt following news the McLaren team member that was taken to hospital has been discharged.

“From that side, the best thing is that everyone was safe, everyone is doing well. One person was taken to hospital just for some check-ups but all good otherwise. A bit of a scare for the whole team — never a nice thing. But just a bit more probably of a stressful day than I would have liked.

“I lost my shoes, and that was probably as bad as it got for me, honestly. Just different, I’ve not been in my normal room, I’ve not been maybe able to relax and chill out as much as I normally do. I’ve had a lot of offers from people; it’s been great. A lot of the teams honestly have been very, very nice to us, McLaren, in offering help and things like that, so that was all good from that side.

“But a shame it [the damaged hospitality hub] won’t be used today or tomorrow I don’t think for anything, and maybe not into the future. But that’s not anything that I know about for now.”

Red Bull progress ‘not good enough,’ Verstappen admits

Max Verstappen admits he was hoping to still be ahead of the chasing pack at the Spanish Grand Prix but that Red Bull’s progress with its car setup was shown not to be good enough after he was beaten to pole position. Red Bull’s advantage has been …

Max Verstappen admits he was hoping to still be ahead of the chasing pack at the Spanish Grand Prix but that Red Bull’s progress with its car setup was shown not to be good enough after he was beaten to pole position.

Red Bull’s advantage has been reduced in the previous four races, with Lando Norris winning in Miami and pushing Verstappen all the way in Imola, before Charles Leclerc’s victory in Monaco and George Russell’s pole position in Canada. Those tracks demanded curb usage that Red Bull felt was a weakness it needed to address, and while Verstappen says there have been improvements he saw Norris unexpectedly pip him to pole in Barcelona on Saturday.

“I think it’s been OK, but not good enough, clearly,” Verstappen said. “These kinds of tracks, I was hoping, of course, to be ahead. But the other teams are catching up. We’ve seen this already in the last few races, so it’s definitely a lot harder. We need to do everything perfect to be first. We just need to bring more performance to the car.”

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Norris called his final lap “perfect” and one of the best of his career, but Verstappen was also happy with the way his last run had come together despite losing out by 0.02s.

“The lap itself was good. I mean, I even also got a tow to Turn 1. I think in general, when you look at it, the whole of qualifying was just miles better than practice for me. I always felt like the car was not really connected in all the free practice sessions. So when I went into qualifying, it just clicked much better.

“I think in the very high speed, we were particularly strong around the laps, with Turns 3, 9, and the last corner, which were quite comfortably flat. But I guess in a way probably that’s why we were not improving that much in the final few runs because those corners are flat, so there’s nothing to gain, and then there are not that many corners left around the track.

“So I did make my gains but I probably was already flat, where maybe Lando wasn’t flat before and then you just lose out a little bit with that. So maybe a bit too draggy for qualifying, looking back at it, but that’s something that is always very easy to say afterwards because the whole of the weekend we were just sliding around too much and now probably it was finally hooked up and you probably would have turned down the wing a little bit, but that’s how it goes.”

With Red Bull coming under increasing pressure, Verstappen says the team has lost the advantage it had both last season and at the beginning of this year.

“In terms of a wake-up call, I think we are pretty much very awake already with what’s happening. So we need to push on,” he said. “We need to bring parts faster, better. I mean, we’ve had a very dominant car last year. That is very … I mean, it’s completely gone, naturally. And we just need to really try and make a step ahead again.”

Verstappen also says his race pace is unknown, with Norris insisting he is confident his McLaren is quick enough to fight the Red Bull even if Verstappen takes the lead at the start.

“I hope I can have just a good start and kind of control it from there,” Norris said. “But I’m sure the whole race I’m going to be under pressure and going to have to make those kind of calls. But I look forward to it.

“I look forward to racing against anyone, and probably Max is the guy on the track that I’ve raced the least, just because he’s always been too far ahead. I’m happy to now kind of be there and I’m sure whether I’m first or second tomorrow coming out of Turn 1, it’s going to be a fight till pretty much the end of the race.

“So I’m excited. I look forward to it. I’ve not had many opportunities to do so. When I have, he’s normally been about a second lap quicker, but that’s not the case anymore. So I’m excited to just race against him and have some fun.”

Hamilton concerned Mercedes lost performance in qualifying

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes failed to retain its level of competitiveness in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix despite qualifying third, as he played down his chances of challenging for victory. George Russell started from pole in Canada …

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes failed to retain its level of competitiveness in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix despite qualifying third, as he played down his chances of challenging for victory.

George Russell started from pole in Canada and fought for the win as Hamilton was left bemused by a tire temperature issue that left him starting seventh. A smoother Q3 in Spain saw the seven-time world champion secure third place on the grid behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, but having topped FP2 Hamilton says Mercedes still had issues trying to remain as competitive as it had been in practice.

“I still feel like I lost performance going into qualifying,” Hamilton said. “It’s all about perspective, so maybe they just moved forwards. But I definitely feel like there was a little bit more. Just as you start to push the car, it doesn’t like it. In practice, when you leave a little bit of margin, the car feels quite nice. But it’s when you start to really lean on it to try and get that extra bit of lap time out where we really struggle.

“I think it’s all in the tires. You saw in P1 I was seven tenths down due to an issue with the blankets. We got it sorted for the following sessions but it puts you a bit on the back foot. But otherwise, it’s good that we’re up here and it’s the best qualifying I’ve had this year, so I am really grateful for it.”

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Although he feels there was more performance in the Mercedes car on Saturday that it failed to extract, Hamilton still believes the team is more likely to be focused on defending from Ferrari behind than attacking the top two in the race.

“I think it will be very difficult [to challenge for the win]; I think these two will be very quick. Position is everything and also there’s two of us, so hopefully we can apply pressure as a team to both of the cars ahead in order to maybe play out something in strategy. It’s all about tire degradation tomorrow and how we look after the tires. So we won’t know until we get into that first run.

“I think the bigger concern is probably the Ferraris behind us. We are all within half a tenth, I think, from third to fifth or sixth. They had an upgrade this weekend. I think their long-run pace looked quite strong, so I think it’s more working together as a team and try and hold position at least.

“If we happen to have more pace available to us and we’re able to hold onto these guys [ahead], then it’s game on. But we really won’t know until tomorrow and degradation is always the key here. When you have a really good weekend, you can save your balance and the rear tires. So that’s going to be key for tomorrow.”

Norris bests Verstappen for Spanish GP pole

Lando Norris pinched pole position from Max Verstappen in a thrilling conclusion to qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. Verstappen’s difficult weekend in Barcelona appeared to have turned around by the start of qualifying, and after the first …

Lando Norris pinched pole position from Max Verstappen in a thrilling conclusion to qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen’s difficult weekend in Barcelona appeared to have turned around by the start of qualifying, and after the first runs of Q3 he was back on top with a 0.123s margin to Norris and with the trailing Ferrari and Mercedes cars spread over a quarter of a second further back.

Verstappen rolled out first for the final laps of the shootout and promptly lowered the benchmark to 1m11.403s. Carlos Sainz steamed through and fell 0.063s short. Charles Leclerc tried his luck, but was lacking by only 0.058s.

Norris, however, was next in line and on a sizzling lap, and Verstappen’s lap wouldn’t withstand a third blow. The McLaren driver crossed the line with a time of 1m11.383s, claiming top spot by just 0.02s.

Norris’ second career pole makes him the fourth different pole-getter from the last four races, and the Briton said it took a flawless performance to beat the Dutchman.

“It was pretty much a perfect lap,” he said. “You know when you’re on a good lap and you’re getting excited. The whole thing went perfectly at the end. We’ve been close all weekend but really this was just about a perfect lap, and that’s what I did today.

“It’s not just this weekend. We’ve been quick the last two months — since Miami we’ve been very strong. We’re here to win now. That’s my plan.”

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Verstappen was pleased that his RB20 had found a sweet spot to battle for pole after a troubled build-up through practice.

“I think in qualifying it was all coming together a bit nicer,” he said. “The whole weekend we’ve been trying to find a connected balance. I was quite happy in qualifying.

“Unfortunately it was just not enough. That’s how it goes sometimes. I think overall we can still be very happy with this performance.”

The front row was something of a private battle, with Lewis Hamilton qualifying third but lapping 0.318s slower than Norris. The six-time Spanish GP winner was nonetheless pleased that his Mercedes was capable of battling near the front at such an aerodynamically demanding circuit.

“I’m really happy,” he said. “It’s been quite a difficult year … finally we’re starting to see those incremental steps.

“I didn’t expect to be fighting for pole necessarily. To just be there, I’m incredibly grateful.”

His Mercedes teammate, George Russell, will join Hamilton on the second row after qualifying 0.002s further back.

Ferrari slipped to the third row, with Leclerc leading Sainz in fifth and sixth at 0.348s and 0.353s adrift.

Alpine surprised with both drivers in Q3. Pierre Gasly, steering the heavier chassis, qualified seventh ahead of Sergio Perez. The Mexican, 0.678s off the pace, qualified eighth but will serve a three-place grid penalty for driving a damaged car back to pit lane at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Promoted ahead of him will be Esteban Ocon to eighth, Oscar Piastri — who failed to set a time after having a lap deleted and then running wide over the stones at Turn 12 — to ninth and Fernando Alonso to 10th.

Perez will start ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll in places 12 to 14.

Zhou Guanyu made it out of Q1 for the first time this season but could manage only 15th ahead of Kevin Magnussen.

RB’s day ended with massive disappointment after the team’s major upgrade package translated to a step backwards in pace relative to the rest of the field. Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo qualified 17th and 18th respectively, the pair split by 0.09s and neither within 0.1s of making it through to Q2. It’s the first time this season both RB drivers failed to progress past Q1.

Williams was punished harshly for its overweight car, with Alex Albon set to start ahead of teammate Logan Sargeant on the back row of the grid. Sargeant will see the stewards after the session for impeding Stroll early in Q1.