Norris beats Antonelli to pole in Madrid ahead of Spanish GP

the Madring with a spectacular last-gasp effort, beating Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to the top spot.

In a remarkably close conclusion to Q3, the reigning World Champion displaced all of his rivals with a time of 1:31.824s, mastering the brand-new circuit to clinch his 19th career pole position.

Lewis Hamilton had been the driver to provisionally take P1 after the first runs before he dropped to P4, leading Charles Leclerc and the second Mercedes of George Russell.

Oscar Piastri endured another frustrating deficit to his McLaren team mate as he finished in seventh place, with Liam Lawson, Franco Colapinto and Arvid Lindblad – who had suitably recovered from his earlier crash in FP2 – rounding out the top 10 qualifiers.

Despite featuring towards the front throughout the weekend, Audi failed to make it into Q3, with Nico Hulkenberg settling for P11 in front of his team mate Gabriel Bortoleto.

Just behind, Esteban Ocon beat his compatriot and last week’s polesitter Pierre Gasly to P13, followed by Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda and the lead Williams of Alex Albon.

It was a less than satisfactory day for the home crowd as Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were both eliminated in the opening phase of Qualifying, with the former also set to be investigated for an impeding incident.

They finished the session just ahead of the Cadillac duo of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, who was the driver allegedly blocked by Sainz. Neither Ollie Bearman nor Lance Stroll made it onto the track as Haas were unable to repair the Briton’s car after his FP3 crash, while the Aston Martin driver was restricted to the garage thanks to a suspected water pressure issue.

Q1

Even after three practice sessions at the Madring, plenty of unknowns remained heading into Qualifying, especially as three red flags over FP2 and FP3 – caused respectively by crashes for Lindblad, Hamilton and Bearman – disrupted the running.

The track action so far had also demonstrated that traffic could create a significant obstacle in Qualifying, with the drivers set to jostle for the best position throughout Q1. However, someone who wouldn’t have to deal with that was Bearman, as Haas confirmed that the damage sustained to his VF-26 earlier in the day was too great to fix before Qualifying.

With just 18 minutes on the clock – and the possibility of further incidents – the majority opted to get their banker laps in early on, and the Cadillac pair led a long queue of cars onto the circuit when the light at the end of the pit lane turned green.

Antonelli was the first of the frontrunners to tick that goal off, posting a time of 1:33.566s on the soft compound to shoot into P1 ahead of Red Bull’s Verstappen, who had gone for the alternative option of medium tyres and found himself 0.178s down.

Building on their Free Practice performance, Audi continued to impress as Bortoleto settled into P3 on his opening run, which soon became P5 when Norris completed his lap and Lawson went even faster to top the timesheets.

It looked like Antonelli would come close to reclaiming the position on his second effort, but the Italian locked up and was forced to bail out in order to avoid the barrier. While Verstappen, Leclerc and Hamilton were the next to improve, no one could defeat Lawson’s benchmark.

Meanwhile, there was a shaky moment for Mercedes’ Russell as he kissed the barrier in a mirror image of the error that damaged Albon’s suspension in FP3, with the Briton instructing his team to check for any similar consequences.

His lap was nevertheless enough for P7, putting him in a strong spot to make Q2. Those who weren’t looking as safe leading into the final minutes were home favourite Alonso, the aforementioned Williams driver, Cadillac’s Perez and Bottas, and Bearman and Stroll, neither of whom had appeared in the session.

While Albon managed to escape the elimination zone and get ahead of his team mate, his P16-worthy lap meant that both Spaniards were knocked out of the first stage of Qualifying in their home event, much to the displeasure of their supporters. Sainz was also noted for impeding Bottas, which will be investigated later in the day.

Unhappy with his original run, Russell went again and was successful in setting the fastest time yet – a 1:33.211s – to head Antonelli, followed by the Red Bull pair of Lawson and Verstappen.

Knocked out: Sainz, Alonso, Perez, Bottas, Bearman, Stroll

Q2

The remaining 16 contenders took a few minutes to reset before returning to the circuit for Q2, and it was once again Antonelli who delivered the initial time to beat with a time of 1:32.603s.

But his hold on P1 didn’t last for long as Red Bull showed that their early pace wasn’t a one-off, with Verstappen edging out the standings leader by 0.046s while Lawson wound up fourth, keeping the team in the mix for a front row start as long as they progressed to Q3.

As the first flurry of laps came to an end, the only drivers who hadn’t set a lap were Alpine’s Gasly and Colapinto – the latter only just held onto a snap around La Monumental, which caused him to abandon the attempt and head back to the pits.

The pair finally emerged for the last four minutes to contend for a spot in the final segment of Qualifying, with many teams predicting that their starting position would be invaluable around the tight, twisty Madring. Bortoleto, Tsunoda, Ocon and Albon joined them in the drop zone at this stage.

After a series of improvements, including a notable one that saw Colapinto snatch P7, both Audis failed to make Q3, along with Ocon, a “sad” Gasly who complained about a lack of grip, Tsunoda and Albon. They missed out to Lindblad and Piastri, who both narrowly squeezed into the top 10 with identical lap times while Verstappen clung onto P1.

Knocked out: Hulkenberg, Bortoleto, Ocon, Gasly, Tsunoda, Albon

Q3

With a short break out of the way, it was time for the big one. Everyone knew that the Madring had plenty of bite, so it was no surprise that they were eager to fly from the get-go just in case a second lap wasn’t possible.

Antonelli’s opening effort was enough for P1 until Hamilton crossed the line, well and truly bouncing back from his FP3 error to claim provisional pole with a blistering 1:32.079s lap to get ahead of both Mercedes drivers.

After a clean first run for all 10, fourth-placed Leclerc led Verstappen, the McLarens of Norris and Piastri, Lawson, Colapinto and Lindblad – would anyone be able to dig deep, take the fight to Hamilton and seize pole position?

Maintaining his role as the first man to finish the lap, Antonelli soared back into first place and Hamilton was unable to improve a second time, but few had anticipated what ended up being a stunning lap by Norris that earned the Briton his third pole position of the season.

He referred to it as “one of my best” as he outpaced the Italian by just 0.011s, with Verstappen also finding time late on to secure P3 ahead of Hamilton and Leclerc.

Russell’s title challenge took yet another blow as he finished P6 from Piastri, Lawson, and the ‘best of the rest’ representatives Colapinto and Lindblad.

The 2026 Spanish Grand Prix is set to begin at 15:00 local time on Sunday. Can Norris claim another victory or will the Madring produce the safety car drama many have predicted?