F1 qualifying results: Oscar Piastri thunders to pole at the Spanish Grand Prix
McLaren locks out the front row after a thrilling qualifying session at the Spanish Grand Prix
Another thrilling qualifying hour awaits the Formula 1 grid at the Spanish Grand Prix. The sport’s latest triple-header concludes with this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix from Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and today brings one final hour of practice ahead of the all-important qualifying hour.
The week began with rampant speculation about a new Technical Directive from F1’s governing body, aimed at the “flexi-wings” that have become a major talking point over the past two seasons. While the sport imposed restrictions on rear wings to begin the year, more stringent requirements — and testing — went into effect this week.
While some in the paddock believed this would be a “gamechanger” in the pecking order, that has yet to materialize, at least based on Friday’s two hours of practice. Both McLaren drivers were strong in FP1 and FP2, with Lando Norris topping the timing sheets in FP1 and teammate Oscar Piastri leading the way in FP2.
Yet several teams and drivers are lurking, and with one more hour of practice ahead of qualifying, there is still more for the teams to learn.
We will have today’s qualifying session covered live, so check back early and often!
Here is the provisional starting grid, which will be filled in throughout qualifying:
Note: All updates are in Eastern time
Q3
11:08: “I think we had quite a decent Friday,” says Verstappen. “Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to challenge for pole.”
11:06: “Oscar drove very well,” begins Norris. “Oscar was driving well all weekend.”
11:04: Alex Brundle with the post-qualifying interviews on F1TV. First up is your pole-sitter, Oscar Piastri. “Yeah very happy, it’s been a good weekend so far,” begins Piastri. “I think last night we found some pace, and today the car’s been mega.
“I improved quite a lot in Turn 1, actually,” added Piastri. “It all just came to me mainly in the first half of the lap.”
11:01: Piastri roars to the top of the timing sheets with a 1:11.546, which is 0.209 seconds ahead of Norris.
Verstappen takes P3. McLaren locks out the front row in Barcelona.
11:00: Norris goes purple through the first sector, but then Piastri tops that effort. Looking very much like a Papaya versus Papaya shootout.
10:59: Final push laps are underway, starting with Norris.
10:57: Hadjar rolls out, as the only driver who has yet to set a time. Looks like he’ll one-shot this Q3.
Leclerc climbs out of his car, looks like he’s going to stick with what he has done, which has him in P4.
10:56: Alonso’s first push lap also pips Verstappen, and the Aston Martin veteran gets to P5, dropping Verstappen to sixth.
The crowd roars their approval.
10:54: Leclerc pips Verstappen and slides into P4.
10:53: Norris goes to provisional pole, and we have a McLaren front row for the moment. Russell is in P3, while Verstappen’s first push lap was good four fourth.
10:52: Piastri goes to the top with 1:11.836. But of note, at least to my eyes, he may have been wide at Turn 6.
10:49: 12 minutes and counting as the final segment of qualifying gets underway.
Q2
10:44: Ruth Buscombe on F1TV notes that the “Red Bull is still struggling with understeer.”
10:41: Albon, Bortoleto, Lawson, Stroll, and Bearman are the five drivers eliminated.
10:40: Stroll’s final push lap keeps him in the drop zone, and the Aston Martin driver will be out in Q2. Bortoleto’s final push keeps him in P11 as well, and he will also be out.
Hadjar jumps to P6, which eliminated Albon.
10:36: Russell also tells Mercedes that he is “happy to give” teammate Antonelli a tow “if needed.”
And yes, there are dark clouds on the horizon. We’ll see if teams head out earlier than expected to make sure they get a good lap in here at the end of Q2.
10:34; George Russell, Weatherman. “Dark clouds in the distance over [Turn] 13.”
10:33: Piastri jumps to P1 with the first sub-1:12 effort of the day, as he pumps in a 1:11.998 lap.
With seven minutes remaining and each driver having posted a lap, the five drivers in the drop zone are: Bortoleto, Lawson, Albon, Stroll, and Bearman.
10:31: Verstappen goes P1 with a 1:12.358, but then Norris pips him with a 1:12.056.
10:28: Alonso is back out on the track, along with most of the drivers remaining. Only Piastri, Russell, and Antonelli remain on pit lane.
10:27: Alonso immediately heads back to pit lane at the end of his out lap.
10:26: We have a green light in Barcelona with 15 minutes and counting on the clock. 15 drivers remain, and five more will be eliminated at the end of this segment. Alonso, Albon and Bearman are the first drivers to take to the track.
Q1
10:23: Alex Brundle on F1TV walks through Tsunoda’s final push lap, speculating that the tires just fall away from the RB21 at the end of the lap. “The car really doesn’t turn for him,” outlines Brundle as Tsunoda winds through the third sector. “He just doesn’t have the front end.”
10:21: “This is just a disaster for Red Bull,” says Jolyon Palmer on F1TV. “How do you explain it?”
10:19: Bearman jumps to P11, which eliminated his teammate Ocon.
Yuki Tsunoda has been eliminated as well, along with Hülkenberg, Ocon, Sainz, and Colapinto.
10:18: Colapinto has pulled to the side and he has been eliminated.
10:17: Bortoleto jumps to P8 and Hülkenberg to P10, meaning there is some time to be found on these final push laps. Nobody should feel safe.
10:16: A bit of a problem on pit lane. Colapinto was at the front of the pack and experienced a problem with his car, forcing the rest of the grid behind him to try and get around him to take to the track.
10:15: Under four minutes left in Q1 and pit lane looks like Route 50 headed east towards Ocean City, Maryland on a Friday in the summer.
10:12: Max Verstappen’s first lap splits the McLarens. He’s 0.247 seconds behind Piastri, and just 0.001 seconds ahead of Norris.
Now that every driver has completed a push lap, the five drivers in the elimination zone are Nico Hülkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz Jr., Yuki Tsunoda, and Gabriel Bortoleto.
10:10: Over to you Oscar Piastri. The McLaren driver posts a 1:12.551 with his first push lap, good for P1 and 0.248 seconds ahead of Norris.
10:09: Liam Lawson jumps to P1, but it is only for a moment. Kimi Antonelli, but then Lando Norris roars to P1 with a 1:12.779.
George Russell then cuts the beam just 0.007 seconds behind Norris.
10:05: Under 13 minutes left in Q1 and after some of the drivers at the back of the grid post early times, the rest of the grid trundles out onto the circuit.
Lance Stroll currently tops the timing sheet, followed by Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto
10:00: There is a green light at the end of the pit lane and we have 18 minutes on the clock. Alpine’s Franco Colapinto is the first driver out onto the track.
9:59: We are waiting the green light to kick off qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Updates ahead of qualifying
9:54: Piastri the prohibitive favorite on F1TV ahead of the qualifying hour.
9:41: F1TV looking at the two fastest laps from Piastri and Norris in FP3. You can see where Piastri was best thanks to telemetry data courtesy of F1-Tempo:
9:30: And we are live.
If you are excited there is another live blog for qualifying this morning, you can thank the weather gods. Heavy rains here in Maryland washed out today’s travel baseball double-header, not only saving me a two-hour drive this morning but allowing me to settle in to watch some qualifying. So, there’s that.
Notes from FP3
It was another command performance from Team Papaya in FP3.
Piastri topped the timing sheets in the third and final hour of practice, with a blazing lap of 1:12.387. Norris finished in P2 behind his teammate with a time of 1:12.913, over a half-second behind Piastri’s pace.
Piastri and Norris are the only two drivers to go below 1:13.000 so far this week. Piastri has posted two laps in the 1:12 range this week, first in FP2 on Friday and then his thunderous effort in FP3.
Charles Leclerc finished third in FP3 with a lap of 1:13.130, 0.743 seconds behind Piastri.
Here are the full results from FP3: