Lando Norris raises eyebrows with response to Oscar Piastri snatching Spain pole
Oscar Piastri took pole for the Spanish Grand Prix after Lando Norris made too many mistakes on his final qualifying lap, though his response was rather different to usual
Lando Norris was left to rue a scruffy final lap which allowed title rival Oscar Piastri to snatch Spanish Grand Prix pole from his grasp. But the Brit was still smiling as he confidently suggested McLaren will be untouchable in today's race, starting from first and second in Spain for the first time in 27 years.
"We do, we have the best one," he said without hesitation when asked about the race pace of the McLaren cars in the Barcelona heat. But Norris knows Piastri has the advantage off the line after a flawless final effort, compared to his team-mate's which was littered with "little mistakes".
Norris said: "Turn one, kind of the first place you don't want to make a mistake just because it harms the rest of the lap with the tyres. So just a couple little squiggles there and then the exit of turn four as well. So, just not a perfect lap, not the cleanest lap. I still improved surprisingly, so the pace was easily there, just a couple too many mistakes."
But while those errors have played on Norris' mind in the past, he gave the impression of a man with renewed confidence after his Monaco victory last Sunday.
"It's not the end of the world," he smiled. "I think the pace was definitely there, [but] I didn't do it and Oscar was driving very well all weekend, so a good result for the team, a nice one-two and an interesting start for tomorrow."
Piastri rarely allows himself to get too high or low and gave a typically measured reaction to his fourth pole position of the year. He said: "It wasn't the perfect lap but around here, with the tyres going off so much through the lap, it's very tough to do that so I'm very happy with all the work I've put in."
George Russell was unlucky to miss out on being best of the rest, setting the exact same time as Max Verstappen. But because the Dutchman put his lap on the board first, the Brit will have to settle for fourth on today's grid.
Getting back to the front of the grid after poor results in Imola and Monaco pleased Russell but he remains worried about Mercedes ' race pace. He said: "We know that on a Saturday our car is anywhere between P2 and P5. That's where it's been all season and again today.
"We know that the car isn't quick on Sundays, [but] we also made a lot of changes to the car this weekend to try to improve the race pace. So to see that we haven't really hindered qualifying pace is a positive, but then also it may mean it's not going to improve the race pace."
There wasn't much joy to be found for the locals with Fernando Alonso 10th on the grid and Carlos Sainz down in 18th. And Red Bull still don't have two cars in the fight with Yuki Tsunoda 20th and last, the Japanese unable to explain his complete lack of pace.
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