Lando Norris secured pole position for the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring circuit, edging Mercedes championship leader Kimi Antonelli by just 0.011 seconds in a tightly contested qualifying session, according to the FIA.
The reigning FIA Formula One World Champion posted a 1m 31.824s lap on his final Q3 run to claim his 19th career pole position and his third of the 2026 season. Antonelli, who leads the drivers’ championship, qualified second with a 1m 31.835s effort, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took third, 0.140 seconds off the pace.
“It was probably one of the best laps I’ve done ever in my career,” Norris said in the post-qualifying press conference. “One of those laps where everything came together. I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, but it was whether my brain let me do it on the last lap, and everything pretty much worked perfectly.”
Norris described the final corner as a near-miss. “I thought I was in the wall and I thought the boys were going to have to repair the car tonight,” he said, having drifted wide but kept the McLaren out of the barriers to secure pole by the narrowest of margins.
Lewis Hamilton had set the initial Q3 benchmark with a 1m 32.079s lap on Ferrari’s first run, before Antonelli displaced him at the top. Hamilton ultimately qualified fourth, with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc fifth. George Russell took sixth for Mercedes, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in seventh. Red Bull’s Liam Lawson qualified eighth, followed by Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad rounding out the top 10.
The session was not without incident. Colapinto suffered a significant rear-end moment through La Monumental during Q2, forcing him to abandon his first run before recovering to set a time good enough for eighth. Both Audi drivers were eliminated in Q2, with Nico Hülkenberg 11th and Gabriel Bortoleto 12th.
Home favorites Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso failed to advance beyond Q1, qualifying 17th and 18th respectively. Sainz was also referred for investigation over an alleged impeding incident involving Valtteri Bottas, who was unable to complete a clean lap as a result. Bottas and Sergio Pérez, both driving for Cadillac, classified 20th and 19th.
Two drivers failed to set a qualifying time. Oliver Bearman was unable to participate after a heavy crash in the delayed third practice session left Haas without sufficient time to repair his car. Lance Stroll remained in the Aston Martin garage with a suspected water pressure issue and will start from the back of the grid regardless, having already exceeded his Honda power unit allocation for the season.