Lando Norris to start from Pole Position at the Spanish Grand Prix with the fastest-ever lap of the MADRING

McLaren’s Lando Norris will start from Pole Position for tomorrow’s FORMULA 1 TAG HEUER GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2026 after beating Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes by just 0.011 seconds. The reigning World Champion left it late to set his historic time, recording a 1m31.824s — the fastest-ever lap of the new MADRING circuit.

After missing virtually all of second practice as a new gearbox was fitted to his car, the British driver had not looked favourite for pole, but he described his lap around the 22-turn Madrid circuit as one of the best of his career.

“I’m a little bit surprised, but it was probably one of the best laps I’ve done ever in my career,” said Norris. “I’m so proud and very happy for the team. The lap came together and everything pretty much worked perfectly. I’m giving myself the best chance for tomorrow, but I’ve got two pretty quick, pretty good drivers behind me.

“I’m excited for the first race here in Madrid, it’s been a pleasure so far, but it’s a long race on a difficult track, so I’m looking forward to the whole thing.”

Antonelli will line up alongside Norris on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s 57-lap race, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third ahead of the two Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. In the second Mercedes, George Russell finished sixth after appearing to run slightly wide at the final corner.

It had been an exciting qualifying hour, beginning with Q1, in which the slowest five drivers were eliminated. Sadly, that included both local drivers with Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz just failing to progress to Q2. Sainz was particularly unlucky as he was just 0.005s short of his Williams team-mate Alex Albon.

It was the Red Bull of Verstappen that finished top in Q2, and in the first run of Q3, Hamilton was top of the timesheets. But in an exciting climax, Antonelli was the first to go to the top, followed by Norris, while Verstappen was the last driver to cross the line to secure P3.

What happened in practice?

Antonelli had set the pace in the free practice session, lapping the MADRING in 1m32.797s, just 0.166s ahead of Leclerc. He was the only Ferrari running at the end of FP3 as team-mate Hamilton had made a mistake at the final corner and locked up the brakes of his scarlet car. Hamilton continued to drive his broken machine around the lap, before coming to a stop by the side of the track.

With the time taken to repair the barriers, Race Control decided to suspend the session, to give all the teams the track time they needed before qualifying. During practice, local hero Sainz suffered a lock up heading towards El Búnker and just managed to stop his Williams before hitting anything. He finished the session in P18, just one place behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

Although FP3 started at 12.30 local time, Arvid Lindblad still had to wait in his garage as his crew worked on his Racing Bulls machine. Another driver who needed some repairs was Alex Albon, who clipped the wall on the exit of Turn 20 after just a couple of laps in his Williams. At the end of practice, Ollie Bearman brought out a red flag after spinning into the wall at the exit of Turn 10, and sadly he was unable to take part in qualifying.

History made in F2

Japan’s Ritomo Miyata secured his maiden Formula 2 victory in the Sprint race this afternoon. Starting second on the grid, the Hitech driver took the lead into the first corner and led all 23 laps. Behind him, Emerson Fittipaldi finished second, watched on in the pit lane by his father, who was victorious in the Spanish GP at Madrid’s Jarama circuit in 1972.

Laurens van Hoepen took the final podium position with a strong drive from fourth on the grid. The Dutchman overtook Campos Racing’s Noel León for third with a brave move into Turn 5 on lap 9, and while Leon initially repassed the Trident driver up the Las Cárcavas Climb into El Búnker, he conceded the position further around the lap.

Championship points leader Nikola Tsolov was engaged in an exciting battle with his Campos team-mate, but in his attempt to pass Leon, he clipped the inside apex of Turn 20 and spun into retirement.

Tsolov’s spin on lap 15 brought out the second Safety Car of the Sprint race, following an earlier deployment for clashes on the opening lap. Spanish racer Mari Boya withstood the challenge from behind to claim the final point in P8.

Title battle hots up in season finale

It was a home win for Spanish team Campos Racing in the morning’s FIA Formula 3 Sprint race. Frenchman Théophile Naël made a superb start from second on the grid to take the lead into the first corner. Pole-sitter James Wharton managed to repass Naël on the run down to Turn 5 chicane, but after he cut across the chicane, he relinquished the lead back to Naël further around the opening lap.

Naël took the chequered flag with a lead of nine seconds ahead of the Prema duo of Wharton and Alex Powell. Ugo Ugochukwu scored three points in the championship fight to close the gap to Slater, who could only manage P18.

In the afternoon Feature Race, a multi-car incident blocked the track at the start, leading to a rolling restart. Brazil’s Pedro Clerot made a strong start to overtake pole man Taito Kato and took a maiden victory after 19 laps, with Finland’s Tuukka Taponen joining them on the podium.

It was an excellent result for Ugochukwu and Campos, with three cars in the top ten, to give the home team the Teams’ title, while Ugo’s fourth place gave him 12 points to put him level with Slater — who spun out on lap 10 — on 141 points each at the top of the standings. It sets up a thrilling winner-takes-all climax to the championship for tomorrow’s final race of the F3 season.