Lando Norris takes his second pole position of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix after the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying, narrowly beating out Max Verstappen by two hundredths of a second.
Q1
The Spanish heat was a big factor in the opening parts of this session. The track temperature had dropped by 10 degrees, which meant that times were going to be improving compared to in practice. However, it is always going to be hot at this circuit which, when combined with the number of sweeping corners, means drivers will need to be smart about when they want to push during their lap, as taking too much life out of the tyres early on will compromise them at the end of the lap.
A lot had been made about the substantial updates made to the RB car prior to the start of the weekend, though it appeared from practice that the team had gone backwards. This was proven in qualifying, as both Tsunoda and Ricciardo finished in 16th and 17th respectively, having both reached Q3 last weekend.
Another team that struggled compared to last week is Williams, who ended Q1 occupying the back row of the grid. The opposite can be said for Kick Sauber, who were able to see both their drivers reach Q2 in a Grand Prix qualifying session for the first time this season.
ELIMINATED
16. Kevin Magnussen – Haas +0.056
17. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri +0.104
18. Daniel Ricciardo – RB +0.194
19. Alex Albon – Williams +0.272
20. Logan Sargeant – Williams +0.628
Q2
Track evolution proved to be quite dramatic during Q2, with most drivers managing to find rather decent gains on their banker laps. For example, both Mercedes drivers found themselves at risk throughout the session, in part due to having set their initial times on used tyres. However, with fresh rubber and an improving track, they were both able to make it through to Q3 within the top 3.
Alpine have had their best qualifying result of the season so far as they saw both drivers head through to Q3 for the first time this season. This is very encouraging progress for the Endstone based team, who started the season so poorly with both drivers having struggled to escape Q1 at the early stages of the season.
There are two Spanish drivers enjoying their home grand prix this weekend, and whilst Sainz has been enjoying himself towards the sharp end of the grid, with Ferrari having recovered from their blip in form in Canada, Alonso had narrowly missed out on Q3 by less than two hundredths of a second.
ELIMINATED
11. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.019
12. Valtteri Bottas – Kick Sauber +0.118
13. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas +0.201
14. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.263
15. Zhou Guanyu – Kick Sauber +0.629
Q3
The early runs showed that there was a close fight for pole brewing between Verstappen, the McLarens, the Ferraris and the Mercedes drivers. Verstappen had set a provisional pole time that was within two hundredths of his Q2 time, but the gap behind was quite narrow, with Leclerc in 6th less than three tenths behind.
Oscar Piastri was the first of the front runners to start their final times, and was exhibiting some strong pace coming out of sector 2, before running wide at turn 12 and ruining his chance of being even close to pole.
The Ferraris came next, and whilst both Leclerc and Sainz would both come very close to Verstappen’s provisional time, neither would be able to snatch pole away. Even if they had done in the moment, Verstappen was next to cross the line, and he improved by a little under 3 tenths, making it look likely he would take another pole position this season.
However, Norris would then come and cross the line, and would do so just 2 hundredths of a second faster than Verstappen. Whilst the Mercedes has demonstrated strong pace this weekend, neither Hamilton nor Russell were able to knock Norris off his perch, allowing the Brit to take the 2nd Grand Prix Qualifying pole position of his career his first coming at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix. This is also the 2nd time this season Norris will be lining up first on the grid, having gone fastest in the Sprint Qualifying session at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Qualifying results
1. Lando Norris – McLaren 1:11.383
2. Max Verstappen – Red Bull +0.020
3. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes +0.318
4. George Russell – Mercedes +0.320
5. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.348
6. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari +0.353
7. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.474
8. Sergio Perez – Red Bull +0.678 (3 PLACE GRID PENALTY)
9. Esteban Ocon – Alpine +0.742
10. Oscar Piastri– McLaren NO TIME
