Lando Norris snatched pole position from Max Verstappen at the Spanish Grand Prix by pulling off a blistering final run during qualifying on Saturday.
Norris’ great run was made more impressive given the circumstances. Just hours before, his McLaren team had to evacuate its hospitality suite because of a fire shortly before practice started. McLaren said one team member was taken to a local hospital “for precaution.”
“The best thing is that everyone is safe, everyone is doing well,” Norris said. “A bit of a scare for the whole team, just a bit of a more stressful day than I would have liked. I lost my shoes, that was as bad as it got for me.”
McLaren’s hospitality facility, a multi-storey temporary structure that provides meals for staff and guests, started billowing smoke shortly before the third practice session on Saturday morning.
Norris said the team would be unable to use the facility on race day. While insisting he wasn’t complaining, he said the incident has deprived him of the rest room he used to “chill out” and focus.
“Tomorrow it could impact me a bit more because I wont be able to get that quiet time that I love,” Norris said.
It sure didn’t shake him during qualifying.
Just when Verstappen was seconds away from claiming another pole, Norris whipped around the 4.6-kilometer (2.8-mile) track to edge Verstappen by 0.02 seconds.
Norris earned his first career victory in May when he won in Miami. He started that race from fifth.
“It was pretty much a perfect lap, so I am super, super happy,” Norris said. “We have been close the past two months, ever since Miami. We probably missed out on pole because we didn’t do that perfect lap. We made some changes on the final lap and found the room to improve.”
Pole-sitters have won 24 of the 33 F1 races just north of Barcelona.
Lewis Hamilton will start third, just ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell. Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are next.
Verstappen, winner of the last two Spanish GPs, holds a 56-point lead over Leclerc in the drivers’ standings.
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