Piastri beats Norris to pole position in Spain

McLaren's Oscar Piastri put in a stunning lap to earn pole position from team-mate Lando Norris at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Australian beat Norris by 0.209 seconds, vaulting himself ahead of the Briton - who had been faster on the first runs in final qualifying but made an error on his last lap.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was third fastest, 0.302secs slower than Piastri.

Mercedes driver George Russell set exactly the same lap time as the Dutchman but will start fourth because he set it a few seconds later.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton beat team-mate Charles Leclerc for only the second time in a grand prix qualifying session this year to take fifth, ahead of Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.

Leclerc, Alpine's Pierre Gasly, Racing Bulls' Iscak Hadjar and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso completed the top 10.

Piastri's advantage suggests that a rule change aimed at restricting the flexing of front wings for aerodynamic gain has had no effect on McLaren.

It was introduced by governing body the FIA after intensive lobbying by Red Bull, who - along with Ferrari - hoped it would peg back some of McLaren's performance.

Verstappen and Red Bull have tended to be a close match for McLaren at circuits with predominantly long medium and high-speed corners, as this one does.

But the gap between pole and Verstappen was bigger than at Imola, where the Dutchman won, and in Japan and Saudi Arabia, where he was on pole.

It was also the biggest margin the pole-sitter has had all season.

Piastri said the rule change had limited impact on McLaren and the way they prepared their car for the race.

He added: "It's been a strong weekend so far. Didn't start off that well but today the car's been mega."

Norris had been 0.017secs faster than Piastri on the first runs in the top 10 shootout, partly thanks to a small slipstream he earned from his team-mate at the start of his lap - to which Piastri reacted over the radio by saying: "Cheeky."

"I don't think there was anything untoward," he added. "I think it was just a coincidence."

Norris joked: "We planned it all weekend," before adding: "No, it was just a coincidence."

But Norris made errors in a couple of corners on his final run and, although he improved his time, fell short of Piastri.

Norris said: "Just a couple of little mistakes. Turn One, where you don't want to make a mistake because it harms the tyres for the rest of the lap. A couple of little squiggles there. And Turn Four as well. The pace was easily there but a couple of little mistakes."

Verstappen had been a long way off on his first run in the final session, after trying a different approach to preparing his tyres on the out lap which did not work, but leapt up on his final run.

"Turn One was never good even though I tried different approaches," he said. "The rest was fine, the car was in a decent window, unfortunately not fast enough."