2024 Spanish Grand Prix – Second Career Pole Position for Norris

Lando Norris secured his first pole position of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season and the second of his career, ahead of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona. 

The Briton will start the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix alongside Verstappen, and will hope he can stay in first to get his second career win after winning his first race in Miami earlier on in the year.

Q1 – Double exits for VCARB and Williams

Q1 started with a bit of a lull as most of the drivers waited for better track conditions. There were a few out on track, including Daniel Ricciardo, who was the quickest of the five that went out early. That lap time was soon replaced by the two Red Bull’s, as the times kept tumbling down. 

Leclerc set the pace during the first runs, setting a time of 1:12.257s, with Verstappen half a tenth behind the Scuderia Ferrari man. Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg raised a few eyebrows after the first few laps, sitting in sixth and seventh respectively. Valtteri Bottas also put in a good lap to be twelfth.

With five minutes to go, Alex Albon was the only man out on track, running out of sync to try and improve for a place in Q2, and his time was good enough for twelfth, but with everyone else improving he found himself out of qualifying and nineteenth on the grid.

On the final runs, Hamilton managed to go quickest ahead of Leclerc by +0.114s. Logan Sargeant wasn’t able to out qualify his teammate, meaning he’ll start last on the grid. Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda also got knocked out, which will be a big disappointment for Visa Cash App RB on the weekend of their big upgrade package.

Kevin Magnussen was also knocked out, due to Nico Hulkenberg going faster in the other MoneyGram Haas F1 Team car.

Q2 – Alonso misses out, Alpine double Q3

Lance Stroll set the first time in Q2, on a used set of soft tyres but he wasn’t top of the times for long. Esteban Ocon went quicker before being replaced by Sergio Pérez. An excellent lap from Gasly put him ahead of Perez and first. 

It was then the turn of Leclerc to go quickest, but he was soon replaced by Oscar Piastri. It was an ever-changing top ten, with Sainz then going quickest, before he was replaced by Norris. Verstappen put himself two tenths ahead of the chasing pack on his first attempt. 

After the first runs, Hamilton was down in the bottom five on a used set of tyres, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll joining him in the elimination zone along with both Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber drivers.

Stroll then pulled himself out of the top ten, running out of sync with everyone else but with such a small marginal gain, the Canadian found himself out and not in the top ten shootout. Hamilton went second fastest and into the top ten after a poor first lap. 

Ocon and Gasly managed to lift themselves into the top ten, giving BWT Alpine F1 Team their first double Q3 appearance of the season. 

Home hero Alonso missed out on Q3 as Russell put himself just behind his teammate into third. Zhou Guanyu, Hülkenberg and Bottas were all knocked out and will start outside the top ten for Sunday’s race.

Q3 – Norris on pole!

Q3 was a brilliant shootout between the top ten drivers and after the first runs, Verstappen had a big advantage on his competitors, setting a 1:11.673s, which was +0.123s ahead of Norris behind. 

The two Mercedes were in third and fourth, with both Ferrari’s behind, followed by both Alpines. Perez’s first lap on the used softs saw him +1.388s down on his teammate, while Piastri had his first lap time deleted for track limits.

Going into the second runs, the track was improving and plenty of drivers had their eyes on a potential pole position. The Ferrari’s were the first to cross the line but they could’t beat Verstappen, who was also up on his first attempt anyway.

Verstappen then crossed the line improving to a 1:11.403s, but remarkably Norris managed to go even quicker than the Dutchman, putting his McLaren on pole position for just the second time – the last time Norris was his pole position for the 2021 Russian Grand Prix.

Hamilton out qualified his teammate for just the second time this season – third is the seven time world champions best grid spot of the season. Russell will start on the second row ahead of Leclerc and Sainz in fifth and sixth respectively.

A brilliant effort from Gasly means he’ll start seventh, ahead of Pérez, who will take a grid drop down to eleventh. Ocon qualified ninth but will start the race in eighth, while Piastri didn’t set a lap due to going off track on his final and only run in Q3.