Piastri beats Norris to convincing pole position

Oscar Piastri has defeated McLaren team-mate Lando Norris to pole at Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Piastri made the difference in the final run of Q3, putting two tenths on Norris after the pair had been closely matched before.

On the first run in the top-10 shootout Piastri opened with a 1m11.836s lap, with team-mate Norris replying with an effort of 1m11.819s, just 0.017s quicker than the Australian.

They resumed battle on the final run, with a superb second sector from Piastri key to his pole winning run of 1m11.546s. Norris only marginally improved his laptime to settle for second as Piastri took the fourth pole of his 2025 season as well as his F1 career.

Max Verstappen and George Russell set identical times to occupy the second row, with the Red Bull driver ahead of the Mercedes as he was first to cross the line.

Lewis Hamilton beat his Mercedes replacement Andrea Kimi Antonelli to fifth, as well as Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who only completed one Q3 run that left him seventh.

Pierre Gasly qualified an excellent eighth for Alpine as he hopes to repeat his Bahrain GP exploits, while Isack Hadjar continued his outstanding form with another top 10 berth in ninth.

Alonso offset his run plan by setting his only Q3 laptime in between everyone else’s two sets of runs, temporarily beating Verstappen to fifth much to the Spaniard’s delight, but after the final barrage of runs the Aston Martin driver dropped down to 10th.

Q2: Albon and Williams lose out

In Q2 Piastri was the first driver to dip below the 1m12s mark, leading Norris and Verstappen.

But the second qualifying phase was the terminal station for Williams, which had already been pessimistic about its chances this weekend at a historically poor circuit for the squad.

Albon was the first to miss the cutoff to Q3 in 11th, just 0.030s behind Gasly. The other drivers who had been in the drop zone after first of two runs didn’t save themselves either.

Nevertheless, Gabriel Bortoleto was an impressive 12th in the Sauber, beating Racing Bulls man Liam Lawson, Aston Martins’s Lance Stroll and leading Haas driver Oliver Bearman.

Q1: Rookies star, Tsunoda falters

In Q1 it was plain sailing for the frontrunners, with Piastri leading the way from Verstappen and Norris, although the extremely slim margins meant there were less than two tenths separating Leclerc in sixth from the drop zone.

Before claiming 12th place in Q2, Sauber’s Bortoleto had already starred by getting there in 10th, with Bearman also delighted to make it through in the Haas. Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was less successful after missing out on Q2 by half a tenth.

Ocon was also beaten by his rookie team-mate, while Williams’ Carlos Sainz was eliminated in 18th in front of his home fans. Franco Colapinto was struck by an issue on his Alpine that saw him unable to do a final run, leaving him 19th on the grid.

But the biggest victim in Q1 was the second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, who lost time in each sector to start dead last on the grid.

F1 Spanish GP – Qualifying results