McLaren continued its steady progress throughout the 2026 Formula 1 season, as Lando Norris captured his third pole in the last four race weekends.
Points leader Kimi Antonelli was fast throughout all of the sessions so far at the Madring in Madrid, Spain. But at the end of the day, Norris nipped Antonelli by one hundredth of a second to take pole.
Max Verstappen qualified third. Lewis Hamilton, starting fourth, means four constructors are in the top 4 positions to start in the race, a testament to just how close F1 still is even with these new regulations.
“It was probably one of the best laps I’ve ever done in my career,” Norris said. “Very happy for the team.
“It was 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; it pretty much worked perfectly. One of those laps where you look at the lap time at the end, and go, ‘oh shit, that was pretty good!'”
There were no serious incidents or wrecks during any of the three rounds of qualifying.
Q3
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Leader |
| 1. | 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 1:31:824m |
| 2. | 12 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | +0.011s |
| 3. | 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Red Bull Ford | +0.140s |
| 4. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +0.189s |
| 5. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.195s |
| 6. | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | +0.325s |
| 7. | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | +0.470s |
| 8. | 30 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull Racing Red Bull Ford | +0.492s |
| 9. | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine Mercedes | +1.079s |
| 10. | 41 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls Red Bull Ford | +1.217s |
Q2
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Advancing |
| 11. | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | +0.019s |
| 12. | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | +0.184s |
| 13. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Haas Ferrari | +0.463s |
| 14. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Mercedes | +0.549s |
| 15. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls Red Bull Ford | +0.880s |
| 16. | 23 | Alexander Albon | Atlassian Williams Mercedes | +2.328s |
Q1
Lance Stroll will be starting from the rear of the field after taking a power unit penalty. Not that there’s that much of a difference, as he had a mechanical issue on his warm-up lap and didn’t get a hot lap in.
Oliver Bearman damaged his Haas Ferrari too much in an FP3 wreck, requiring a chassis change and forcing him to skip qualifying.
The two Spanish drivers both failed to get out of this round. Carlos Sainz was noted for impeding Valtteri Bottas, which means he’ll likely face a grid penalty.
| Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Advancing |
| 17. | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Atlassian Williams Mercedes | +0.005s |
| 18. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Honda | +0.081s |
| 19. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac Ferrari | +0.606s |
| 20. | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac Ferrari | +2.704s |
| 21. | 87 | Oliver Bearman | Haas Ferrari | N/A |
| 22. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Honda | N/A |
Lights out for the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix will be at 9 a.m. ET, with coverage on Apple TV.
Michael has watched NASCAR for over 25 years and has covered it on-and-off for 14.
In addition to Frontstretch he also writes sporadically for his own websites GrandPrixFocus.com and StockCarFocus.com.
A name and email address are required to post a comment. The email address is not publicly visible or shared. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated according to our comment policy.
Comments are listed in order from oldest to newest. Leave a comment