McLaren hails Lando Norris 'masterpiece' despite expensive mistake

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has branded Lando Norris' final push lap in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix a "masterpiece" after the F1 drivers' champion snatched pole position away from Kimi Antonelli.

The Briton was just 11 milliseconds quicker than the Mercedes driver at the Madring, but his boss revealed the 26-year-old lost three tenths of a second at the final corner, where Norris himself conceded he almost crashed.

However, he managed to hold onto his MCL40 by the ragged edge to claim his third pole position of the campaign (and his third in the past four rounds).

Norris' season has come alive since McLaren delivered upgrades for the Hungarian Grand Prix just before the summer break, and is — along with Antonelli — the in-form driver in F1.

He is undeniably brimming with confidence and was thrilled with his effort, the 19th pole of his career, telling his team it was "one of my best" over the radio.

Stella was inclined to agree, showering his driver in praise for his exploits at F1's newest circuit.

"It was a masterpiece," the Italian told Sky Sports F1. "We have seen across the whole weekend, if we put it all together, we are not far from the best cars.

"We worked our way step by step to try to put all the performance together. Lando did it only on the final run in Q3, and in the final corner he made a mistake of three tenths. It was an incredible lap - one of the best of his life until the last corner.

"He realised what was available in the car. We are happy with pole.

"At the same time, the grid is so tight that if you are a few tenths behind, like Oscar [Piastri, in the second McLaren], you are P7."

McLaren low-speed weakness alleviated after set-up evolution

McLaren has struggled in low-speed corners this season, but the team has continuously worked at refining its set-up to remedy the inherent weakness of its chassis.

With both Norris and Piastri having lacked confidence in the car early in the weekend, Stella was pleased to highlight the progress made in that area.

"In some of the previous races we talked about performance in the low-speed [corners]," the 55-year-old said.

"We saw the car was naturally fast in some of the high-speed, fast, flowing sections at the start of the weekend, but at low speed the drivers did not have confidence to brake and turn into the corners, so we evolved the setup and driving to give them more confidence - to the point we finished qualifying with the best first sector."