Lando Norris snatched pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix with an incredible effort on the last lap, Max Verstappen was second and Hamilton third.
Q1
After a sunny Friday and Saturday morning, the clouds appeared over the Spanish track ahead of qualifying, lowering the track temperature by 6 degrees. Despite that, no rain was expected during the session.
There wasn’t a lot of action at the start of Q1, with only a few drivers setting lap times. Only after a few minutes did the top teams’ drivers also go out on track.
After the first attempts, it was Charles Leclerc ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris by just 0.049s and 0.129s. Then it was Carlos Sainz and George Russell that were also close. Pierre Gasly and Nico Hülkenberg set a great lap time and were even ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri, and Sergio Perez.
With the second attempt, Hamilton went fastest, just 0.114s ahead of Leclerc. Both Alpine and Sauber did a great job by putting both cars in Q2. The drivers who couldn’t qualify for the second part of qualifying were Kevin Magnussen, Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo, Alexander Albon, and Logan Sargeant. It was truly a disappointing qualifying for the RB team considering they brought many upgrades for this Grand Prix.
Q2
The first lap of the Q2 saw Verstappen setting an incredible time as he went first fastest, ahead of Norris and Sainz by 0.219s and 0.221s. Piastri, Leclerc, and Russell were also close. Then Gasly did an impressive job as he went seventh fastest ahead of Perez. Hülkenberg and Ocon completed the top 10.
Meanwhile, Alonso and Hamilton were in the elimination zone as they didn’t use new tires. They still had a second attempt with new tires at their disposal. Except for the top three, everybody went out for a second attempt, but not Leclerc, though. He was P5 and decided to stay in the box.
Ferrari’s gamble paid off, as Leclerc still qualified for Q3. Hamilton also improved and went up to P2, just ahead of Russell, who was third. Both Alpines entered in Q3 with an outstanding job.
The eliminated drivers were Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas, Hülkenberg, Lance Stroll, and Zhou Guanyu.
Q3
Verstappen went fastest again, ahead of Norris by just 0.123s. Hamilton and Russell weren’t far, as the gap was just 0.143s and 0.167s respectively. The two Ferraris struggled a bit more, as Sainz and Leclerc were 0.242s and 0.276s off the pace.
Piastri messed up his lap as he went on the gravel and couldn’t set a time, he will start in P10.
Norris snatched pole position in the end as he went 0.020s faster than Verstappen. Hamilton was third, with Russell, Leclerc, and Sainz behind. Gasly out-qualified Perez, Ocon, and Piastri.