Norris edges Antonelli to secure pole position in tight Spanish GP circuit

MADRID (AP) — Lando Norris came out of nowhere to outduel Kimi Antonelli and secure vital pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday.

Antonelli had been the dominant Formula 1 driver in Madrid this week but Norris emerged with the fastest time in his final qualifying attempt at the new Madring urban circuit that won’t yield many overtaking opportunities.

“I’m shocked. I’m a little bit surprised to be here,” Norris said. “It was probably one of the best laps I’ve done ever in my career. Very, very happy, very proud. Very happy for the team.”

Norris was sixth fastest in the first practice session on Friday, then couldn’t run his McLaren in the second session because of a gearbox problem and finished fourth in the final session on Saturday.

He said the “adrenaline was high” in qualifying. He was one hundredth of a second better than Antonelli’s Mercedes.

“It’s just one of those laps where everything came together,” Norris said. “I had an idea of what I wanted to do, it was just a matter of my brain letting me do it on that last lap. Everything pretty much worked perfectly.”

The 20-year-old Antonelli leads the series by 66 points after an epic come-from-behind win in front of his home fans in Monza last weekend.

“I thought it was a good lap but then this guy just snatched it away, so good job to them,” Antonelli said.

It was the third pole of the season for Norris. He won consecutive races in Hungary and in the Netherlands ahead of the Italian GP that Antonelli won.

Max Verstappen will start third for Red Bull, with a time one tenth of a second behind Norris, followed by the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton — who crashed in the final practice earlier Saturday — and Charles Leclerc. Russell was next. Hamilton was provisionally ahead after the first attempts of the final qualifying run.

Norris’ McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri finished in seventh place.

Antonelli said the start of the race Sunday could be key to the outcome.

“The start is very important for sure,” he said. “Overtaking is going to be very difficult. The only thing you can do is try to put pressure on the car in front and make them make a mistake and then try to play with strategy.”

It was a mostly clean session after two red flags affected the final practice session at the unforgiving circuit that mixes existing roads with purpose-built sections.

The 5.4-kilometer (3.3-mile) Madring track has been giving drivers little margin for error.

Antonelli locked up tires and went straight but avoided crashing earlier in the qualifying session. Russell brushed the wall at one point.

Haas’ Oliver Bearman did not participate in qualifying because of a crash in the final practice.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also did not join qualifying after taking a grid penalty for switching power-unit components.

Local favorites struggle

As expected, the two Spaniards couldn’t give the home fans a lot of reason to celebrate.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso will start 18th with Aston Martin, while Williams’ Carlos Sainz finished 17th in qualifying but will start last after being handed a penalty for impeding Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac on the track.

Organizers expected a total attendance of nearly 350,000 people at the track in the Spanish capital.

___

See AP’s full auto racing coverage here