Oscar Piastri smashes 'cheeky' Lando Norris to grab Spanish Grand Prix pole

Oscar Piastri roared to a fourth F1 pole position of the season for the Spanish Grand Prix, defeating "cheeky" team-mate Lando Norris. 

Piastri was trailing Norris after the first Q3 runs by just 0.017s, but a storming final lap was good enough for the world championship leader to overhaul Norris with a 1:11.546s lap-time. 

It is McLaren's first front-row lock-out in Barcelona since Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard in 1998, with Piastri enjoying the largest pole-margin of the season. 

Behind, Max Verstappen will start third ahead of George Russell with Lewis Hamilton in fifth with home favourites Fernando Alonso in 10th and Carlos Sainz in 18th. 

Q3

On the first Q3 runs, Piastri went early and posted a 1:11.836 to claim provisional pole, but as he finished his lap, Norris was tucked in behind for a tow. 

Piastri slammed on the brakes after crossing the line, and branded Norris's move "cheeky" after the Briton posted a 1:11.819s, just 0.017s ahead.

Russell was placed third, with Leclerc fourth, ahead of world champions Alonso, Verstappen, and Hamilton. 

On the second runs, Norris lowered his time to a 1:11.755, but Piastri smashed that with a 1:11.546 to roar to a fourth pole in nine races, some 0.209s faster than Norris.

Verstappen was third, 0.302s down on Piastri, with Russell fourth and Hamilton fifth, out-qualifying Charles Leclerc in a grand prix for the first time since China. 

The barest of margins for Albon

In Q2, Alex Albon was the first driver to miss out on the top 10 shootout with a time just 0.030s behind Gasly on the right side of the bubble.

The Williams driver claimed cars in the final sector of his push lap "knew what they were doing" in going slowly, but still earned Williams its best qualifying position in Barcelona since 2017. 

Elsewhere, Gabriel Bortoleto was 12th for Stake, just 0.007s faster than Liam Lawson in 13th, with Lance Stroll and Ollie Bearman also falling in 14th and 15th.

Bearman did not have a set of new soft tyres to use, accounting for about four-tenths of the seven-tenths deficit to Gasly in 10th. 

At the top, Piastri topped the segment from Norris and Verstappen, the Australian dipping into the 71-second laps with a 1:11.998, 0.058s faster than Norris. 

Sainz and Tsunoda fall in Q1

The big story of Q1 was the elimination of Carlos Sainz in 18th place for Williams at his home grand prix. 

Fearing the team might struggle at the track, the Spanish driver posted a 1:13.203 as his best lap-time, but was dumped out as other drivers such as Bortoleto and Bearman improved. 

The other shocker was for Yuki Tsunoda, who was slowest of all in the Red Bull in P20. 

Struggling with the set-up, Tsunoda posted a 1:13.385 as his best time, only 0.587s slower than Verstappen up in second place. 

Franco Colapinto had a late drama after his Alpine ground to a halt in the pit-lane exit on his final lap, with the Argentine falling in 19th place, despite being ahead of Gasly after the first runs. 

The other eliminees were Nico Hulkenberg in 16th and Esteban Ocon in 17th as Piastri, Verstappen, and Norris topped the segment, Verstappen and Norris only 0.001s apart.