Fraser MasefieldLando Norris took a vital pole position for the first ever Spanish GP at the new Madring circuit in Madrid, beating Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen on the timesheets.
A quickest effort of 1m31.824s meant that the McLaren driver finished just a hundredth of a second ahead of championship leader Antonelli with Verstappen fractionally further adrift.
The Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc line up fourth and fifth ahead of George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson.
Franco Colapinto and Arvid Lindblad round out the top ten.
That Pole Position feeling 😮💨🙌#F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/jzjajQ3OUa
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2026
“Yeah, I’m shocked. I’m a little bit surprised to be here now, but, my God, it was probably one of the best laps I’ve done ever in my career,” said Norris afterwards.
“Very happy, very proud, very happy for the team. Just one of those laps where everything came together.
“I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, but it was whether my brain let me do it on the last lap, and everything pretty much worked perfectly.
“So I’m just very happy. I didn’t know one of those laps where you look at that time at the end and you’re like, oh sh*t, that was pretty good.”
“That might be my best one” 🙌
Lando Norris clinches his third pole in four races 😮💨#F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/69vVPYzm6l
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2026
With Catalan city rivals having hosted the Spanish Grand Prix since 1991, this is the first F1 weekend at a different venue from there since Jerez (1986-1990), with previous venues at Jarama, Montjuic, Pedralbes, Lasarte, Sitges and Guadarrama.
The new circuit is essentially a higher downforce circuit with fewer overtaking opportunities, where grid position counts for much more.
But experts often say that about the Hungaroring, that continues to provide some of the most spectacular racing and unusual results.
And after coming from the back of the grid to win in Monza, Kimi Antonelli remains the overwhelming favourite to add to his 2026 wins come Sunday.
“On my side, you know, very intense qualifying,” said the Italian.
“Difficult to get the balance right with the track being so hot, but, yeah, it was pretty clean.
“Obviously, it’s not easy to put the things together in a track like this, which is quite tricky, but overall, I think we did a good job and we’ll try to, you know, see what we can do tomorrow.”
The grid is set for Round 14 at the MADRING 🤩📊
And we have four different teams in the first four positions! 👀#F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/KV9je1IxDq
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2026
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Craig Scarborough