BARCELONA, Spain — Championship leader Oscar Piastri snatched pole position away from teammate Lando Norris in dramatic fashion at the Spanish Grand Prix.
A stellar 1:11.546s lap from Piastri at the death gave him a relatively comfortable 0.2s gap to Norris in the other McLaren.
Norris had been up by 0.017s after the first runs of Q3 but was unable to improve on his final lap.
It will be a morale-boosting pole position for Piastri, who saw Norris close the gap in the title fight to three points by winning last week’s Monaco Grand Prix.
“Nice work, very nicely done,” Piastri said after taking pole. “Quite some turnaround from last year, so well done everyone. Let’s have ourselves some fun tomorrow.”
After days of speculation about whether McLaren’s advantage might be pegged back by a technical directive around front wings, the papaya cars looked as dominant as they have all season.
Spain’s qualifying might well set the tone for the rest of the year, with Piastri and Norris exchanging quick laps throughout practice and then through the three qualifying segments.
“Couple of little mistakes, but just didn’t do it,” Norris said after the session. “But Oscar was driving well all weekend.
Referencing the long run down to Turn 1, Norris added: “An interesting start [coming] tomorrow.”
Check out: Result | Standings | Calendar
In what might have been a foreshadowing of how the rest of their championship fight might play out, there was a taster of gamesmanship between the McLaren teammates.
As Piastri finished his first lap, he was told Norris was approaching close behind, likely to utilise what is known as the ‘tow’ behind another car in front.
Piastri dived off the racing line to avoid helping his teammate in anyway.
When told Norris was arriving fast behind, Piastri replied: “Cheeky”.
The rest of the grid were left to fight for ‘best of the rest’ status behind the McLaren pair.
Fittingly it was Max Verstappen and George Russell, the next two drivers in the championship fight, who locked out the second row of the grid with an identical lap of 1:11.848, 0.302s off Piastri’s benchmark.
Lewis Hamilton finished fifth, out-qualifying Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc for just the second time this year.
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli qualified between the two Mercedes drivers.
French pair Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar continued their strong qualifying form in eighth and ninth respectively, while Fernando Alonso gave the home crowd something to cheer about by getting to Q3 and qualifying 10th for Aston Martin.
Hadjar’s performances have been attracting high praise across the grid and his strong lap came as Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda finished dead last in the other Red Bull.
Verstappen’s Red Bull teammates have struggled for years and Tsunoda appears to have fallen into the same trap.
The Japanese driver sounded surprised to have been so far off the pace, saying on the radio after being eliminated: “Wow, honestly I mean … that was a pretty clean lap.”
Argentina’s Franco Colapinto was also a casualty of Q1, meaning he has failed to progress from the first qualifying session in all three of his races since replacing Jack Doohan at Alpine.
Colapinto will start ahead of Tsunoda in 19th.
