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Oscar Piastri claimed pole for the Spanish Grand Prix with a dominant display for McLaren in Barcelona. He was imperious at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to beat his teammate Lando Norris into second by a huge two-tenths of a second, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third.
George Russell was fourth for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, who has struggled in Spain this weekend, found his pace when it mattered to take fifth place for Ferrari.
For Piastri this was another strong statement of intent, after he was disappointed with taking only third at the last round in Monaco. It continues his consistent opening to the season with superb performances to win in China, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Miami, with four now from eight meetings. With Norris having closed the gap on the Australian in Monaco, Piastri came back to absolutely wring the neck of the car for a brilliant pole in Spain.
The Australian driver, who leads the world championship by three points from Norris, in contrast to his teammate is very much enjoying this year’s McLaren and how it handles, whereas Norris has found it hard to adapt to his driving style. The gap at the end, even given Norris made some tiny errors on his final lap, was a chasm between teammates in identical machinery.
For all that the question of whether the FIA’s clampdown on the flexing of front wings had dominated the buildup to this meeting and the potential for the pecking order to be reset, it was very much business as usual in Barcelona.
McLaren have insisted they were gaining no advantage and the running in Spain suggests they were spot on. “It clearly slowed McLaren down a lot,” was the caustically sarcastic assessment of Mercedes’ George Russell after practice.
Just as they shrugged off the clampdown on rear wing flexing in China, the McLaren package clearly enjoys an advantage way beyond the minor gains that might have been enjoyed from the front wing enjoying a level of elasticity. Perhaps the only question that remains over the rule change will be if it has any effect at all on the McLaren’s ability to be so easy on its tyres, which will be evident in the race – but nothing indicates the changes will have any material effect on this either.
On the first hot laps in Q3, a clearly confident Piastri, who had topped both Q1 and Q2, went out early and once more set the bar quickest in all three sectors with a time of 1min 11.836 seconds. Russell went closest in second but it was Norris who looked to match Piastri and the pair were almost inseparable through each sector, but Norris just had the edge to take provisional pole by one hundredth of a second.
There was nothing to choose between them for the final runs, with Norris heading out first. He was immediately up in the first sector, looking for the very limit perhaps a tad too hard and Piastri went even quicker. Norris did improve but Piastri had even more. He had nailed all three sectors, with a lap of clinical execution that left his teammate behind. Verstappen once more outperformed his Red Bull to at least stay in touch in third but was three-tenths back.
Kimi Antonelli was sixth for Mercedes, Charles Leclerc seventh for Ferrari, Pierre Gasly eighth for Alpine, Isack Hadjar ninth for Racing Bulls and Fernando Alonso 10th for Aston Martin.
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Alex Albon was in 11th for Williams, Gabriel Bortoleto in 12th for Sauber, Liam Lawson 13th for Racing Bulls, Lance Stroll 14th for Aston Martin and Ollie Bearman 15th for Haas.
Yuki Tsunoda’s struggles with the Red Bull continued, the Japanese driver going out in 2oth, once more leaving Verstappen alone at the front of the grid.
Nico Hülkenberg was in 16th for Sauber, Esteban Ocon in 17th for Haas, Carlos Sainz 18th for Williams and Franco Colapinto in 19th for Alpine.
