Championship leader Oscar Piastri edged out teammate Lando Norris to claim pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix, despite a narrow gap of just 0.2 seconds between them.
Piastri’s stellar 1:11.546 lap at the death secured him a comfortable lead over Norris in the other McLaren. However, Norris had initially taken the lead with a 0.017s advantage after the first runs of Q3 before failing to improve on his final lap.
This pole position marks a morale-boosting victory for Piastri, who won last week’s Monaco Grand Prix and narrowed the gap in the title fight to just three points. Norris acknowledged that he made “couple of little mistakes” but praised his teammate’s driving skills.
The two McLaren teammates had engaged in some light gamesmanship during qualifying, with Piastri deliberately diving off the racing line to avoid helping Norris overtake him. Norris responded by saying “Cheeky”.
The rest of the grid was left to fight for the second row of the grid, which was locked out by Max Verstappen and George Russell, both drivers in the championship fight. Lewis Hamilton secured fifth place, with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc finishing just behind him.
Other notable performances saw Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar secure eighth and ninth places respectively, while Fernando Alonso’s Q3 appearance gave the home crowd something to cheer about. Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda struggled to find pace, finishing dead last in the other Red Bull, while Franco Colapinto failed to progress from Q1 for the third consecutive time.
Source: https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/45405528/spanish-gp-oscar-piastri-takes-mighty-pole-lando-norris-max-verstappen