Oscar Piastri pipped Lando Norris to pole position for the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix, with Red Bull star Max Verstappen only managing to qualify third by a deficit of 0.302 seconds.

Championship leader Piastri set a time of 1:11.546 after Q3, edging Norris by 0.209. This was the biggest gap between first and second place in a qualifying session since the start of the 2025 F1 season. George Russell set an identical time to Verstappen to finish fourth.

Red Bull driver Verstappen and Mercedes driver Russell were unable to overcome Piastri and Norris, giving McLaren their first front row victory at the Spanish GP since 1998. McLaren will now hope that having two drivers at the top of the order will lead to their first victory in Spain since 2005.

Verstappen and Red Bull will be pitted against McLaren duo Piastri and Norris, as well as Mercedes stars Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who qualified sixth in the Spanish Grand Prix after Yuki Tsunoda failed to make it out of Q1 and set the slowest qualifying time on Saturday. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Yuki Tsunoda qualifies 20th for Spanish GP and proves he is ‘hurting’ Max Verstappen at Red Bull

Fearing damage, Tsunoda asked Red Bull to check the floor after his first run in Q1. But he failed to improve his performance sufficiently by the end of the first phase of qualifying and finished 20th despite Franco Colapinto’s mechanical problem in Q1 in Spain.

Verstappen was 0.587s quicker than Tsunoda in Q1, with the Dutchman finishing second in the first segment, trailing Piastri by 0.247s. Nico Rosberg now believes Tsunoda’s lack of qualifying speed since joining Red Bull in March is “hurting” Verstappen, who needs to fight alone.

Rosberg said on Sky Sports F1 (31/05, 13:50): “This is the moment where Verstappen’s lack of a strong teammate, or a close teammate, hurts him because he can’t compare himself to anyone.

“He only has his own data, and that’s it, while everyone else is pushing each other to go faster and faster. That’s a disadvantage.”

Yuki Tsunoda was slower than Max Verstappen in Spain than Liam Lawson was in China

Red Bull promoted Tsunoda to replace Liam Lawson ahead of the third round of the season after the 23-year-old finished qualifying for the Shanghai Sprint and Chinese Grand Prix as the slowest driver. Lawson was 0.813s and 0.750s slower than Verstappen in Shanghai respectively.

Tsunoda’s disadvantage to Verstappen in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix even overshadows Lawson’s woes in China, which cost the New Zealander his place. But Lawson was also 1.076 seconds slower than the four-times F1 drivers’ champion in Q1 of the championship-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Red Bull are concerned about Tsunoda’s disadvantage at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and that is one of the last things the Japanese driver needed. Red Bull see Isack Hadjar as an option to replace Tsunoda in 2026, as his average qualifying deficit to Verstappen is now 0.722s.