1 day ago
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McLaren's Oscar Piastri put in a stunning lap to earn pole position from team-mate Lando Norris at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Australian beat Norris by 0.209 seconds, vaulting himself ahead of the Briton - who had been faster on the first runs in final qualifying but made an error on his last lap.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen was third fastest, 0.302secs slower than Piastri.
Mercedes driver George Russell set exactly the same lap time as the Dutchman but will start fourth because he set it a few seconds later.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton beat team-mate Charles Leclerc for only the second time in a grand prix qualifying session this year to take fifth, ahead of Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.
Leclerc, Alpine's Pierre Gasly, Racing Bulls' Iscak Hadjar and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso completed the top 10.
Piastri's advantage suggests that a rule change aimed at restricting the flexing of front wings for aerodynamic gain has had no effect on McLaren.
It was introduced by governing body the FIA after intensive lobbying by Red Bull, who - along with Ferrari - hoped it would peg back some of McLaren's performance.
Verstappen and Red Bull have tended to be a close match for McLaren at circuits with predominantly long medium and high-speed corners, as this one does.
But the gap between pole and Verstappen was bigger than at Imola, where the Dutchman won, and in Japan and Saudi Arabia, where he was on pole.
It was also the biggest margin the pole-sitter has had all season.
Piastri said the rule change had limited impact on McLaren and the way they prepared their car for the race.
He added: "It's been a strong weekend so far. Didn't start off that well but today the car's been mega."
Norris had been 0.017secs faster than Piastri on the first runs in the top 10 shootout, partly thanks to a small slipstream he earned from his team-mate at the start of his lap - to which Piastri reacted over the radio by saying: "Cheeky."
"I don't think there was anything untoward," he added. "I think it was just a coincidence."
Norris joked: "We planned it all weekend," before adding: "No, it was just a coincidence."
But Norris made errors in a couple of corners on his final run and, although he improved his time, fell short of Piastri.
Norris said: "Just a couple of little mistakes. Turn One, where you don't want to make a mistake because it harms the tyres for the rest of the lap. A couple of little squiggles there. And Turn Four as well. The pace was easily there but a couple of little mistakes."
Verstappen had been a long way off on his first run in the final session, after trying a different approach to preparing his tyres on the out lap which did not work, but leapt up on his final run.
"Turn One was never good even though I tried different approaches," he said. "The rest was fine, the car was in a decent window, unfortunately not fast enough."
Russell, who qualified fourth in Spain last year, but led the first lap after overtaking Norris and Verstappen around the outside of the first corner, said: "Very close with Max and Lando, definitely not in the fight for pole but other than Monaco we have been in the top five every qualifying. We know that's where the car is on a Saturday.
"Our goal is to try and improve the race pace. We have made some pretty drastic changes to the set-up this weekend, positive that it hasn't hindered qualifying pace but whether it will improve the race pace is another story."
Hamilton, 0.499secs from pole, said he was "relatively happy with it" because it had been "definitely an improvement from where we've been".
Leclerc, two places further back, was restricted on tyres in qualifying because Ferrari have saved some fresh sets for the race. That left him only one run in the final session, which he did early. He said that made qualifying "tricky" and added: "I hope our tyre choice will pay off tomorrow."
Alonso, who also had only one fresh set of soft tyres for Q3, leapt up to fifth place when he did his lap in the middle of the session, and whooped over the radio - having felt it was a good one.
But he tumbled down to the bottom of the top 10 as others did their laps later.
"It was good the whole weekend to be honest," he said. "Always in the top 10 in all sessions, Q3 in 0.1secs you can finish P7 or P10. We are the last of that group but let's see what we can do."
His performance suggested that the upgrades put on the car for Imola two races ago, and which carried some influence from new managing technical partner Adrian Newey, are having an effect but the team admit the car remains very difficult to drive, even if it has more performance.
Alonso's team-mate Lance Stroll was 0.535secs slower in Q2 and then missed the weigh bridge at the end of the session, so has been reported to the stewards.
