Antonelli rues pole slipping away in ‘very intense’ Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying

Kimi Antonelli has admitted that he was pleased with his effort in Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying before McLaren’s Lando Norris pipped him to pole position, with the Mercedes driver concluding that it was a “very intense” session at the Madring.

Fresh from his historic victory at the Italian Grand Prix, it looked as though Antonelli would be in front once again as he mingled around the top of the timesheets throughout Qualifying and consistently improved his laps.

His last lap in Q3 was enough to deny Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton pole, but in the final seconds, Norris completed what he labelled “one of the best laps” of his career to snatch P1 by margin of 0.011s over the 20-year-old.

Speaking straight afterwards, Antonelli said of his attempt: “I thought it was a good lap, but then this guy just snatched it away, so a good job to them.

“On my side, a very intense Qualifying – difficult to get the balance right with the track being so hot, but yeah, the lap was pretty clean.

“Obviously it's not easy to put the things together on a track like this, which is quite tricky, but overall I think we did a good job and now we'll try to see what we can do tomorrow.”

The Italian will be hoping to find a way past Norris and add an eighth win to his tally in the Spanish Grand Prix, but many teams have predicted that overtaking will be a significant challenge due to the circuit’s complex layout and lack of long straights.

A strong result would provide a further boost to Antonelli’s title ambitions – he currently holds a 66-point advantage over his nearest rival and team mate George Russell, who could only manage P6 in Qualifying.

Asked what his plan is for the race, Antonelli replied: “Hopefully a good start. Hopefully we can get the jump. If the opportunity comes to win the race, we’ll try to take it.

“Otherwise, we’ll just try to do our best race and then we’ll see what happens.”