Norris makes last-gasp swoop for pole over Verstappen

Lando Norris snatched pole position from championship leader Max Verstappen late on in Spanish Grand Prix qualifying, finding just 0.02s on his final flying lap to secure his second F1 pole.

Verstappen looked set for his eighth pole of 2024 after setting a 1m11.673s on his first tour to make a statement and subsequently upped the ante with a 1m11.403s on his last effort thanks to a tow from team-mate Sergio Perez.

His first effort had already proved unbeatable for the respective Ferrari and Mercedes duos, as qualifying was closely contested, but Norris delivered at the last moment to beat Verstappen’s intimidating benchmark.

“It was pretty much a perfect lap. It was so close, still, but I’m super happy. One of my best pole positions, not that I’ve had many! But it was just about getting a perfect lap, and that’s what we did,” said Norris.

“We’ve been quick the last two months, since Miami we’ve been strong. We’ve probably missed out on pole just by not having the perfect lap, but we did it today.

“[Winning] is our target, but it’s going to be tough against Max, against Lewis. But we’re here to win now.”

The two Mercedes locked out the second row, as Lewis Hamilton out-qualified George Russell by just 0.002s to claim third, displacing the two Ferraris.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Perez took eighth, which becomes 11th with the application of a grid penalty collected in Montreal, as Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri completed the top 10.

The Australian was stranded in 10th as he failed to set a time in Q3, aborting his sole lap after understeering out of Turn 13 and clipping the gravel on the exit.

Fernando Alonso could not break into Q3 at his home race, despite improving on his final lap; the Spaniard was mired in 14th before he crossed the line, but this only lifted him up to 11th.

Alonso thus starts Sunday’s race against Valtteri Bottas, who had a glimpse of life outside of the drop zone after his final lap but this was not enough to stave off a late-session fall down the order into 12th.

Kevin Magnussen was pushed into the drop zone at the end of Q1 by Haas team-mate Hulkenberg, as the German improved late on into the session to break into the next phase of qualifying.

Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

The Dane had managed to get free of the bottom five on his own final flying lap, but a series of late improvements ensured…

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Norris makes last-gasp swoop for pole over Verstappen

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