Reigning Formula One world champion Lando Norris snatched pole position away from current title-race leader Kimi Antonelli in qualifying for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid.
It looked like Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton was set for his first pole since July 2023, only for Italian sensation Antonelli to jump into the lead.
But McLaren driver Norris, who has won two out of the last three races, managed to grab the front of the grid at the death, finishing 0.011 seconds ahead of Antonelli with a brilliant final lap at the new Madring circuit.
Hamilton had to settle for fourth after Red Bull's Max Verstappen leapfrogged his old rival by taking third place. Hamilton's teammate Charles Leclerc was in fifth place while Mercedes' George Russell could only manage sixth.
It was an impressive turnaround for Norris after the Briton struggled with a gearbox issue during practice on Friday.
“I am shocked and a little bit surprised to be here now but my God, it was probably one of the best laps I have done, ever in my career so very, very happy, very proud, very happy for the team,” said Norris, who secured back-to-back wins in Hungary and the Netherlands.
“It was just one of those laps where everything came together. I had a good Idea of what I wanted to do but it was whether my brain would let me do it on the last lap and everything worked perfectly.
“I'm just very happy. It was one of those laps where you look at the lap time at the end and you're like 'oh, that was pretty good'.
“The adrenalin was high on the last lap. It is just one where you have got to relax, just let it all flow. It is easy to get tense around here, there is a lot of walls that come out at you pretty quickly.”
McLaren boss Andrea Stella described his driver's pole as “a masterpiece”.
“We had seen across the whole weekend, that if we put it all together, we were not far from the best cars. So we worked our way, step by step, to try to put all of the performance together,” said Stella.
“I think Lando did it only in the final run of Q3 and if you want the news, is that in the final corner he made a mistake of three tenths. So it was just an incredible lap. Definitely one of the best of his life until the last corner.”
Antonelli enjoys a 66 point advantage over Russell in the drivers' championship with Hamilton third, a further 10 points behind. Norris is in fourth, 96 points shy of the leader.
Antonelli, who secured a historic home victory at Monza last time out, admitted qualifying had been “very intense” but paid tribute to Norris and McLaren.
“I thought it was a good lap but then this guy just snatched it away. Good job to them,” said the 20-year-old. “On my side, a very intense qualifying. Difficult to get the balance right with track being so hot but the lap was pretty clean.
“Obviously not easy to put things together on a track like this which is quite tricky. Overall, I think we did a good job.”
Four-time world champion Verstappen was content with his third spot. “For us, it was a very good qualifying. For me to be third is a great result,” said the Dutchman.
“The car felt quite decent in qualifying and I could attack corners the way I liked so for us I think this qualifying was a good result.”
The top of the grid was completed by McLaren's Oscar Piastri in seventh, Red Bull's Liam Lawson is eighth, Franco Colapinto ninth and Racing Bulls Arvid Lindblad 10th.
“The first lap wasn't too bad but the second lap was pretty shocking. Disappointing,” said a despondent Piastri. “Turn 1 didn't start very well and a few places were quite a lot better than the lap before but once you get out of the rhythm here it makes life very tough.
“Unfortunately, one of those sessions where you wish you could have it again.”
