2024 Spanish GP Qualifying: Lando Takes His Second Pole

McLaren’s Lando Norris clinched his second career Formula 1 pole position, outpacing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in a thrilling qualifying session for the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix.

Norris, whose previous pole was at Sochi in 2021, initially trailed Verstappen after their first runs in Q3. However, he delivered a brilliant final lap of 1m 11.383s, edging out Verstappen by a mere two-hundredths of a second.

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Mercedes translated their strong practice performance into a solid qualifying result, with Lewis Hamilton surpassing teammate George Russell to secure third and fourth positions on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and local favourite Carlos Sainz finished closely behind in fifth and sixth positions in another closely contested session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Pierre Gasly put in an impressive performance to take seventh for Alpine.

Sergio Perez, who placed eighth, took a three-place grid penalty from the previous race in Canada, which will elevate Esteban Ocon in the other Alpine and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who struggled in Q3 and did not record a time.

Fernando Alonso narrowly missed the Q3 cut on his home turf, edged out by just a few hundredths of a second by his former teammate Ocon, placing him in the Q2 elimination zone.

He was joined by Kick Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, along with Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in the drop zone. Kevin Magnussen was eliminated in the first round of qualifying, just missing Q2 to Stroll, who had his own difficulties caused by Logan Sargeant during Q1.

Despite updates intended to bolster their performance, RB’s struggles continued into qualifying, leaving Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo in disappointing 17th and 18th positions, respectively.

Williams faced one of their most challenging sessions this season, with Alex Albon and Sargeant finishing at the bottom of the standings, presenting a formidable challenge for the team to score points in the upcoming race.

Spanish GP Qualifying Results

2024 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying, 22 June 2024

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Mercedes	1:12.386	1:11.872	1:11.383	12
2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT	1:12.306	1:11.653	1:11.403	12
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:12.143	1:11.792	1:11.701	18
4	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:12.456	1:11.812	1:11.703	16
5	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:12.257	1:12.038	1:11.731	12
6	55	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:12.403	1:11.874	1:11.736	12
7	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine Renault	1:12.651	1:12.079	1:11.857	18
8	11	Sergio Perez¹	Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT	1:12.477	1:12.054	1:12.061	18
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine Renault	1:12.691	1:12.109	1:12.125	18
10	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren Mercedes	1:12.460	1:12.011	DNF	16
11	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	1:12.505	1:12.128		12
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	Kick Sauber Ferrari	1:12.758	1:12.227		12
13	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas Ferrari	1:12.708	1:12.310		12
14	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	1:12.881	1:12.372		15
15	24	Zhou Guanyu	Kick Sauber Ferrari	1:12.880	1:12.738		15
16	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:12.937			6
17	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB Honda RBPT	1:12.985			9
18	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB Honda RBPT	1:13.075			9
19	23	Alexander Albon	Williams Mercedes	1:13.153			6
20	2	Logan Sargeant²	Williams Mercedes	1:13.509			9

¹ Perez penalised 3 grid places for failing to leave the track with serious mechanical difficulties at the previous round.
²Sargeant penalised 3 grid places for impeding another driver during qualifying.

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Ben is a staff writer specialising in F1 from the 1990s to the modern era. Ben has been following Formula 1 since 1986 and is an avid researcher who loves understanding the technology that makes it one of the most exciting motorsport on the planet. He listens to podcasts about F1 on a daily basis, and enjoys reading books from the inspirational Adrian Newey to former F1 drivers.