The qualifying in Spain turned out to be quite an unexpected event given the results we have at hand. Max Verstappen getting the pole position isn’t one of those. Fernando Alonso missing out on top-5 is a surprise. Then Carlos Sainz, being the Ferrari driver to grab P2, is another unexpected result. The biggest headline grabber, however, remains Lando Norris‘ blistering lap that took him to P3. Given McLaren’s ongoing miserable form, even Verstappen couldn’t help but take a dig at Zak Brown & Co.

It is not just the drivers, the McLaren CEO has been enduring some heavy criticism from fans pretty much from the start of the season. He put a dampener on any expectations even before the season began by telling the media that his team was running behind on its targets. As that began to show in the performance on the track, fans immediately started to demand his resignation. After yesterday’s result, it looked like Brown will get a breather. However, after Verstappen’s sly dig, it looks like he won’t.

Max Verstappen puts McLaren down while praising Lando Norris

The final few moments of the qualifying turned out to be a thrilling affair. Norris had already stationed himself pretty high on the timings sheet. However, Lewis Hamilton was improving his timing with every passing lap and was the favorite to take P2 behind Verstappen. That was after George Russell and Sergio Perez couldn’t manage to make it into Q3. As the Mercedes ace was on his final flying lap, all eyes shifted toward the timings graphic. He couldn’t improve his time and finished P5. When Lando’s race engineer told him that he was P3, he could not believe it.

Even Max couldn’t and he let his feelings known during the post-qualifying press conference. He said, “I’m where I expected to be going into this weekend. And to be honest, I also expected Carlos to be there. I just didn’t expect Lando to be there, but that’s a good surprise. No sorry, I didn’t expect McLaren to be there. Sorry, I have to rephrase. I always expect Lando to be high up.”

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The field behind Red Bull has really started to bunch up. More than half of the grid has less than a second separating them. It finally feels like it’s the drivers and their brilliance that are making the difference. Norris feels the same as he admitted a simple mistake could have cost him dearly.

Norris recalls how small the margin for error is currently

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya turned out to be a real challenger for the drivers. Right from the start of the qualifying, they struggled for grip and went into the gravel traps one after the other. Valtteri Bottas’ incident in Q1 even caused red flags to come out. Despite that, and the fact that he was driving a struggling McLaren, Norris landed where nobody expected him to.

Speaking with Sky F1 after the qualifying, Norris said, “Just hold on for dear life! We didn’t expect to be so good today. If I made one little mistake, I would have been four, five, six positions back. I’ll be careful to say we were amazing or exceptional today because, in the end, there are always little things in driving.”

The British driver remained cautious against getting his hopes too high for the main race. However, he gave himself the credit where it was due.

He continued, “Maybe someone made a one-tenth mistake and then it was five or six drivers split by a tenth-and-a-half. I’ll give myself a little bit of credit but at the same time, that can easily turn around tomorrow – in terms of actual race pace.”

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Do you think Norris can stave off the threat from the likes of Hamilton and Alonso later today? Can he finally deliver a podium finish that the team needs so desperately?