By a Whisker: Norris Edges Antonelli to Take Inaugural Madring Pole
Lando Norris (McLaren) took pole for the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at Madring after a remarkably tight qualifying session, beating Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) by just 0.011 seconds. With the new circuit proving unforgiving on tyres and overtaking expected to be difficult, every mistake mattered – and several drivers found that out the hard way.
Q1
Qualifying started with an unfortunate absence: Oliver Bearman (Haas) could not take part after crashing his car in Free Practice 3 earlier in the day. On track, the strategy split was immediately visible. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), and Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) were the only drivers to start Q1 on mediums, with everyone else opting for softs.
Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) was one of the first to put in a decent lap, jumping up to third. Liam Lawson, again substituting for Isack Hadjar at Red Bull due to his injured wrist, went even further and briefly secured P1. Max’s first flying lap was only 0.065s off Liam’s, despite still being on the mediums.
The biggest scare came from George Russell (Mercedes), who locked up and ultimately hit the wall. “We should box to check the car,” came the message over the radio. Despite the incident, George went on to set the fastest time at the very end of the segment.
When asked after qualifying if the incident had affected his P6 in Q3, Russell said he did not think so, explaining that he had been “about three tenths up” on his final Q3 lap before pushing too hard in Turn 11. “The tyres couldn’t take it,” he admitted, adding that Madring was “a really tough circuit” where drivers sometimes had to stay slightly below the limit. Looking ahead to Sunday, George expected tyre degradation to be the defining factor, warning that the race could either become “a procession” if there was little degradation or “pretty chaotic” if it proved excessive.
There were few surprises among the Q1 eliminations: Lance Stroll (Aston Martin, P22, no time), Oliver Bearman (P21, no time), Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac, P20), Sergio Pérez (Cadillac, P19), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin, P18), and Carlos Sainz (Williams, P17). Apart from Oliver, who did not even participate, the biggest – albeit expected – storyline was that the grid’s Spanish drivers would have to start from the last rows at home. Alexander Albon (Williams), meanwhile, was extremely pleased to sneak through in P16 and reach Q2 at the very edge.
Q2
Verstappen kicked off Q2 with provisional P1, but the session soon provided a more dramatic moment. Franco Colapinto’s (Alpine) car got sideways and was pushed towards the outside in the La Monumental banking, but he managed to save it – a move that showed good skill. At one point, Max and Lewis were alone on the track and had a chance to improve their times.
The Q2 eliminations were Alexander Albon (P16), Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls, P15), Pierre Gasly (Alpine, P14), Esteban Ocon (Haas, P13), Gabriel Bortoleto (P12), and Nico Hülkenberg (Audi, P11 – his most frequent position this season).
For Pierre, the result was particularly disappointing after his sensational pole at the previous GP in Monza. He complained of having no grip, calling the situation “so sad”: “Compared to FP3, it’s a completely different car, I don’t get it.”
His teammate Franco, however, had plenty to celebrate. Colapinto surprisingly made it through to Q3, happily shouting “vamos!” on the radio.
Q3
Q3 started with a black-and-white flag for Lando, who failed to follow the race director’s instructions. After the first hot laps, Hamilton was on provisional pole, with the cars from P2 to P8 separated by no more than half a second.
There was also a brief scare in the pit lane when Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) was nearly launched into Charles on his way out for a second attempt. There was no further investigation, however.
Then came the final runs – and Norris got it right when it mattered. In a qualifying session where the difference between pushing and overheating the tyres was tiny, he found the balance, putting together a great lap without pushing the rubber beyond its limit. It was enough to take his third pole of the season and the inaugural pole at Madring, with Antonelli just 0.011s behind.
Kimi was playing much the same game: pushing hard, but trying not to overdo it and cook the tyres. His biggest loss came at Turn 13, and that tiny deficit ultimately kept him off pole.
Red Bull had plenty of pace, too. Verstappen looked particularly strong through Turns 15 and 19, helping him secure third, while Ferrari once again appeared to be paying the price on acceleration out of slower corners. The kerbs at Turn 1, however, seemed to play to the Scuderia’s strengths.
The top 10 lined up:
Lando Norris (McLaren, 1:31.824)
Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes, +0.011)
Max Verstappen (Red Bull, +0.140)
Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari, +0.189)
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari, +0.195)
George Russell (Mercedes, +0.325)
Oscar Piastri (McLaren, +0.470)
Liam Lawson (Red Bull, +0.492)
Franco Colapinto (Alpine, +1.079)
Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls, +1.217)
Arvid’s P10 was also one of his most frequent starting positions recently and marked his seventh Q3 finish in a row.
Norris, wearing a vibrant special helmet and blaming himself for a mistake in the last turn, was on cloud nine after securing pole despite having missed FP2 completely due to a gearbox issue. His mother Cisca Wauman was also present to share the joy.
“I’m shocked,” Lando said. “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.”
He also paid tribute to his mother: “I wouldn’t be able to do a magical lap without my Mum. Because I wouldn’t be here. She’s the reason why I can do all this and achieve my dreams.”
Argentinian footballer and Atlético Madrid head coach Diego Simeone presented him with the Pirelli pole position award. Antonelli thought he had done a good lap, also praising Norris, while Verstappen was satisfied with his result.
Track and tyre situation
Madring is already proving that there is a fine line between extracting performance and asking too much from the tyres. The difficult overtaking layout and rapid degradation could make Sunday a very different story, with drivers having to balance outright pace against preserving their grip. Russell was among those who nearly found the barriers after losing tyre performance – perhaps fitting, given that his fiancée Carmen Montero Mundt recently launched her skincare brand, Barriers. Norris, meanwhile, kept his tyres under control, and that proved decisive in qualifying.
Sky expert Martin Brundle noted that the final lap clearly demonstrated why Norris is the reigning world champion.
Stewards
Qualifying was not quite over when the stewards got to work. McLaren was fined EUR 900 after Lando exceeded the 80 km/h pit lane speed limit by 8.5 km/h.
Russell was called before the stewards after rejoining the track at Turn 5 without staying to the right of the bollard, as required by the race director’s competition notes. George explained that he had taken the shorter route because he was worried about impeding the car behind, although he admitted he could have gone around the bollard. The stewards accepted that he had acted in good faith but still considered the prescribed route possible, giving him a warning.
Antonelli and Bortoleto also escaped with warnings after exceeding the permitted time between the Safety Car lines. Leclerc faced a similar investigation after his final Q3 lap, but this case had a slightly different outcome. Ferrari admitted that the team had given Charles an incorrect delta profile because of a miscalculation. Since he had followed the figure shown on the dashboard and did not gain a performance advantage, the stewards found Ferrari exclusively at fault and issued the team a reprimand.
Sainz was not so lucky. After his team failed to warn him that Bottas was approaching on a flying lap, Carlos did not take sufficient action to make way for the incoming Cadillac and was found to have unnecessarily impeded Valtteri in Turns 6 and 7. The Williams driver was handed a three-place grid drop.
Stroll’s penalty had little to do with his qualifying performance at all. Aston Martin used several additional power unit elements on his car during Free Practice 3: his fifth internal combustion engine (ICE) and turbocharger, sixth energy store, fifth motor generator unit – kinetic (MGU-K), and seventh power unit ancillary component. The resulting accumulation amounted to a 40-place grid penalty – American legislation would be proud. Since there are only 22 cars on the grid, the penalty is more than enough to send Lance to the back. He will therefore start last.
Upgrades
McLaren brought a high-downforce rear wing configuration featuring profiles on the sides of the endplates. Mercedes introduced a larger central winglet in the middle of the rear wing flap in its high-downforce version, as well as additional elements behind the exhaust pipe to increase downforce by directing exhaust fumes upwards, where they accelerate the airflow beneath the main plane. The team also brought redesigned front brake duct winglets for improved airflow stability regardless of wheel steering angle.
Red Bull introduced updated bodywork in the rear wheel area, aligning it with the new suspension mounting fairings introduced at Monza, along with new elements on the T-tray area panel. Ferrari brought updated rear suspension aerodynamic fairings to optimise aerodynamic load distribution, while Alpine added an element on the side deflectors to improve lateral airflow shedding. Cadillac introduced a new rear wing winglet to increase downforce, as well as a new winglet near the diffuser sidewall.