Madring’s debut qualifying session showed just how treacherous the new circuit in the Spanish capital can be — a track lined with concrete walls and offering almost no margin for error, which turned into a real trap for some of the strongest drivers on the grid.

Lando Norris snatched pole position with a time of 1:31.824, on a lap he himself called “probably one of the best laps of my career”, after nearly clipping the barrier at the final corner. His team described it as a genuine masterclass under pressure. Behind him, Kimi Antonelli was just 0.011 seconds adrift, while Max Verstappen took third, 0.140 seconds off pole — one of the tightest qualifying finishes of the season.

Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri was left shaken — despite expectations that McLaren would be strongly competitive, he struggled from the very start of the session and even aborted his first flying lap in Q1. Piastri called his performance “pretty rubbish” and ultimately had to settle for seventh — a particularly painful result given his teammate had just proven the car’s pace was there.

George Russell also paid the price for being too aggressive, losing 0.314 seconds to Antonelli after explaining he pushed too hard at turn eleven, lost the tyres, and lost all his pace from that point on. Oliver Bearman did not take part in qualifying at all after crashing in third practice at turn ten, while Pierre Gasly was left puzzled by his car’s sudden loss of performance compared to the confidence shown in Friday’s sessions.

Despite the challenging and extremely demanding new layout, the session passed without a single red flag — a testament to the drivers’ collective skill in handling the circuit’s tricky profile. In the championship, Antonelli retains a solid 66-point lead over Russell with nine rounds remaining, while Norris, despite losing top spot in the standings, keeps pushing hard with three wins in his last four races.