McLaren’s Lando Norris snatched pole position for 2024 Spanish Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen in a dramatic Qualifying session.
Spanish hero, Carlos Sainz topped FP3 ahead of Norris by just 0.030 seconds but come Qualifying, Norris left it to the death to snatch a slightly surprising pole position ahead of Verstappen by just 0.020s in a four-team fight for pole.
Now here is all the action from FP3 and Qualifying.
FP3
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was first out on track on soft tyres and set 1m 14.178 as the benchmark in the fourth minute, but his teammate – George Russell went fastest nine minutes later with 1m 13.431 as teams largely focused on long runs in the opening 40 minutes of the session.
Attention soon switched to the Qualifying simulations on soft tyre as Norris went quickest in the 45th minute with 1m 13.043, which nobody managed to beat until Sainz left it until seven minutes remaining to snatch top spot with 1m 13.013 as the top four were split by 0.074 seconds.
Leclerc however experienced road rage in the final minute after he got impeded marginally by Norris on the run towards Turn 7, and in-turn retaliated by driving his Ferrari into the Brit.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1m 13.030 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.030 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.037 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.074 |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.151 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.346 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.710 |
| 8 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.740 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.773 |
| 10 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.894 |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.937 |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.951 |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.962 |
| 14 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | + 1.011 |
| 15 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 1.061 |
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB | + 1.148 |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.241 |
| 18 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | + 1.407 |
| 19 | Guanyu Zhou | Sauber | + 1.559 |
| 20 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 1.716 |
Qualifying
Q1
Sargeant was first out on track and set a benchmark 1m 14.301 but his time was soon usurped as cars steadily ventured out for their opening runs, in which Leclerc set 1m 12.257 as the benchmark.
Ricciardo, Stroll, Tsunoda, Sargeant and Zhou meanwhile occupied the bottom five after everyone set their first fast laps, but Ricciardo and Stroll on their next fliers got out of the drop zone at the expense of Albon and Magnussen.
As the checkered flag fell, Sargeant was eliminated in last position but is under investigation for impeding Stroll, and will be joined on the back row by his teammate, Albon.
RB’s Tsunoda and Ricciardo will share the penultimate row in 17th and 18th positions respectively, whilst Magnussen will line up 16th.
Hamilton meanwhile topped Q1 with 1m 12.143 from Leclerc and Verstappen.
Q2
Stroll was first out on track and set a benchmark time of 1m 13.630 in the fourth minute, just as everyone else began to head out of the pit lane at a slow pace in search of a gap.
Ocon soon headed a queue of cars to displace the Canadian as Verstappen eventually set the pace with 1m 11.653 to go fastest from Norris and Sainz.
Down in the elimination zone, Bottas sat 11th ahead of Alonso, Hamilton, Stroll and Zhou with a mix of drivers having ran their opening Q2 fliers on used soft tyres rather than fresh tyres.
Once the checkered flag came out, Alonso qualified 11th ahead of Bottas by 0.099s with Hulkenberg knocked out in 13th position, albeit ahead of Stroll and Zhou.
Q3
Perez was the only driver to venture straight out at the start of Q3 and proceeded to set a benchmark time of 1m 13.061, which was quickly usurped by Verstappen who posted 1m 11.673 to set provisional pole ahead of Norris, Hamilton, Russell and Sainz.
Leclerc sat sixth after his first Q3 lap ahead of Gasly, Ocon, Perez and Piastri – who had his lap deleted after he exceeded track limits.
At the checkered flag, Verstappen lowered his benchmark time to 11.403 and looked set for a second consecutive Spanish GP pole, until Norris produced 1m 11.383 to snatch pole by 0.020s from his rival.
Hamilton outqualified Russell for third by 0.002s in a Mercedes second-row lockout ahead of Leclerc and Sainz who qualified fifth and sixth for Ferrari ahead of Gasly in seventh.
Perez qualified eighth but a three-place penalty from Canada means that he starts 11th with Ocon promoted to eighth on the grid ahead of Piastri, with Alonso now set to start his home race from tenth.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 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 |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.742 |
| 10 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | No Time |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1m 12.128 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | + 0.099 |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.182 |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.244 |
| 15 | Guanyu Zhou | Sauber | + 0.610 |
| 16 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1m 12.937 |
| 17 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | + 0.048 |
| 18 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB | + 0.138 |
| 19 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.216 |
| 20 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 0.572 |
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