Lando Norris is the driver of the imponderable: the Englishman is capable of “inventing” a pole position lap with a time of 1’11″383 which beats the track record without chicanes by nine tenths. It’s true Lando has found a good trail from an Alpine, but Norris was able to build a perfect lap that was able to extract the maximum potential of the MCL38, the single-seater which today seems to have become the point of reference for the Circus.
Norris gives great satisfaction to Andrea Stella: the Briton celebrates his second start from the pole after the much more casual one in Austin 2023. McLaren has also shown great solidity as a team: the fire that hit the team’s hospitality of Woking did not affect the activity on the track in the slightest. And it wasn’t a given. On the contrary.
Max Verstappen, when he set the 1’11″403, must have thought inside himself that he had secured the 40th pole with a Red Bull that was more suffering than expected. The Dutchman, however, had to suffer overtaking by 20 thousandths of second (Lando improved his Q2 performance by half a second!). McLaren confirmed that it was very balanced in the central part where it made the difference.
The three-time world champion held back slightly in T1 to squeeze out the softs in the following two sections: the tactic certainly paid off and the RB20 seems to have found a good balance after hard development work carried out during the night. If we were to judge Red Bull on the placing of Sergio Perez, eighth, we would have to change our opinion on the car left by Adrain Newey. The Mexican will actually have to line up 11th due to the three penalty positions he brings with him from Canada.
The race seems like a McLaren-Red Bull game, because the Mercedes pair occupying the second row are three tenths apart. An eternity on a track like the one in Barcelona. Lewis Hamilton managed to grab third position by two thousandths of a second over George Russell, a sign that the two Stella drivers have taken everything they could from the W15 which is indisputably growing after a difficult start to the season.
Ferrari occupies the third row with Charles Leclerc, fifth, and Carlos Sainz, sixth. The Monegasque made a mistake at turn 5 where he left a tenth, while he only needed 30 thousandths to be on the second row. Fred Vasseur did not hesitate to highlight his driver’s mistake, as if to underline that the evolutions of the SF-24 are capable of rivaling the Mercedes, but it is not so much having ended up behind the black-silver arrows that counts, but how much to pay three tenths from McLaren and Red Bull.
Carlos Sainz finished 28 thousandths behind his teammate: the Spaniard seems to have paid for a less than perfect preparation for the flying lap, but Ferrari, despite its opponents at the top, found no trail. It may be an excuse, but they serve to explain the reading of the gaps.
Seeing Pierre Gasly behind the Ferrari is impressive: the two Alpines climbed into Q3 with merit, a sign that the work done by Bruno Famin is starting to give some positive indications. If Gasly is seventh, Esteban Ocon is ninth, so it was no coincidence.
We talked about Perez, while Oscar Piastri is missing with the second McLaren. The Australian saw his time canceled in the first run of Q3 due to a track limit at turn 10, while he went wide in the gravel in the last attempt so he was left without a performance. The boy is evidently starting to feel the pressure with a car that can fight for victory.
Fernando Alonso with Aston Martin remains out of Q3: the Spaniard did not enter the Top 10 by 14 thousandths of a second. It certainly didn’t go any better for Lance Stroll: the Canadian, who had received a reprimand for his reaction to Hamilton in FP3, finished 14th because Lance had to use three sets of new soft tires in Q1. The “green girl” doesn’t grow and stays away from the top teams.
In 12th place is Valtteri Bottas with Sauber: the Finn confirmed himself ahead of Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas, giving the sensation of an awakening in Spain after too many listless and inconclusive races. The Swiss team brought an update to the C44 and it also worked with Guanyu Zhou who deserved the passage to Q2.
Kevin Magnussen doesn’t leave Q1 for 56 thousandths of a second. The Dane with the Haas appears to be the first excluded ahead of the two Racing Bulls who disappointed expectations since the Faenza team brought a much revised version of the VCARB-01 which, evidently, needs more time to find a good tuning.
Yuki Tsunoda, very surprised by the exclusion, was content to stay ahead of Daniel Ricciardo by a tenth. The two Williams will close the grid with Alexander Albon slipping to 19th position just ahead of his teammate, Logan Sargeant. The American took four tenths from the second to last with the same material. A boost to morale also for those who have gotten used to being at the back of the group…
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