Norris Madrid pole: 0.011s beats Antonelli at F1’s first Madring race

By Jack Shaw · Madring, Madrid · Published: 17:20 BST

• Lando Norris took Norris Madrid pole honours with a 1m31.824s lap, beating championship leader Kimi Antonelli by just 0.011s.
• The reigning world champion was fifth in Q1 and seventh in Q2 before producing what he called “one of the best laps I’ve done ever in my career”.
• Max Verstappen qualified third, 0.140s back, with Lewis Hamilton fourth and Charles Leclerc fifth as Ferrari faded again late in the session.

Lando Norris has taken pole position for the first Formula 1 race ever held at Madrid’s new Madring circuit, snatching it from Kimi Antonelli by 0.011 seconds in the final seconds of qualifying. It is Norris’s third pole of the campaign and his third in four grands prix, and it hands Mercedes a fourth consecutive qualifying defeat.

How Norris Madrid pole came from nowhere

The 5.4km Madring, a mix of street sections and a purpose-built high-speed loop on the edge of the Spanish capital, had spooked the grid all weekend — fast-arriving walls, almost no run-off and two red flags in final practice. Qualifying ran clean, with no incidents of note.

Hamilton led after the first Q3 runs on a 1m32.079s. Antonelli went out first among the frontrunners for the final flying laps and took top spot with a 1m31.835s that nobody else had an answer for — until Norris did, by eleven thousandths. George Russell could manage only sixth, ahead of Oscar Piastri. Lance Stroll starts at the back after taking new engine components. For the full chronological timeline of the weekend, follow the rolling coverage at ReadMotorsport, and read our preview of why Madrid qualifying was always going to decide this race.

The expert angle: Saturday was the race, and Mercedes just lost it

Charles Leclerc spent Friday telling anyone who would listen that overtaking at the Madring was “extremely difficult or impossible”. If he is right, Antonelli has just been beaten to the Spanish Grand Prix by one hundredth of a second on a Saturday afternoon. On a normal circuit, second on the grid for the championship leader is an inconvenience. Here it may be the result.

Worse for Mercedes is the pattern: a fourth qualifying defeat in a row, on a day their driver did everything right — out first, clean lap, provisional pole — and still lost it. Ferrari, meanwhile, did the Ferrari thing: quickest when it did not count, fourth and fifth when it did.

Norris sounded startled. “Oh, what a lap, gorgeous,” he said on the radio. “I’m shocked. I’m a little bit surprised to be here,” he added afterwards. “It was just one of those laps where everything came together.” He was, by his own account, closer to the barrier than the timing screens suggested: “By the last corner, I thought I was in the wall, and I thought the boys were going to have to repair the car tonight.”

The detail that should worry the rest is where he found it. Fifth, then seventh, then nearly half a second adrift with one lap left — and then pole. That is not car pace. That is a driver deciding the wall is negotiable.

Wrap-up

Antonelli leaves Saturday staring at the back of a McLaren on a track where nobody can pass. Does 0.011s cost him the race — or does he drive round the problem on Sunday? For where the title race stood before this weekend, read Kimi Antonelli: 66 points clear and hailed a ‘phenomenon’ before F1’s Madrid debut.