Lando Norris pipped world champion Max Verstappen to claim pole position at the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix on Saturday for McLaren, just hours after a fire scare for the team.
Norris clocked 1 minute 11.383 seconds on the 4.657-kilometre Circuit de Catalunya for a second career pole.
Verstappen missed first place on the grid for the third straight weekend as he trailed by a mere two-hundredths of a second.
Six-time Barcelona race winner Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes was third, .318 of a second back.
In a super-tight session, Hamilton and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari in sixth were also separated by only .045, with George Russell of Mercedes and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari between them in fourth and fifth.
"It was pretty much a perfect lap. You know when you are on a good lap and you are getting excited. But the whole thing went perfectly in the end. Close still but super happy," Norris said.
"We have missed out on pole by just not doing a perfect lap and today was a perfect lap. Max and Red Bull seemed a little bit stronger all weekend but we made some little changes for the final run, I had some areas to improve, and we did that."
Norris was among the people who had to be evacuated from McLaren’s hospitality suite after a fire broke out around an hour before third practice, which was topped by Sainz.
"The circuit emergency services and local fire department have since extinguished the fire," a McLaren statement in the afternoon said.
"One McLaren team member has been taken to hospital as a precaution, and all McLaren personnel and guests are accounted for."
McLaren chief executive Zak Brown confirmed the news after qualifying to Sky TV, and also said: "The other fire was Lando on the race track."
Miami winner Norris hopes that he can transform the pole into a race win but knows he will face a battle against 2022 and 2023 winner Verstappen and others.
"I know it is going to be tough against Max, against Lewis, and everyone behind. We are here to win so that is my plan," he said.
Verstappen got a bit of a tow from team-mate Sergio Perez, who finished eighth but will start from 11th owing to a grid penalty, in the final lap but just missed out on a weekend where he also did not top a practice session.
"That's how it goes sometimes but overall we can still be happy with that performance and it's all to play for tomorrow," he said.
"I think in qualifying it was all coming together a bit nicer. The whole weekend we have tried to find a connected balance."
Hamilton, who won five straight Barcelona races 2017-2021 but has not won a grand prix since 2021, said: "I am really happy. I am super grateful to be in the top three.
"It has been quite a difficult year, there has been hard work from everyone back in the factory, and we are starting to see those incremental steps. I didn't expect to be in for pole necessarily. We have made huge steps forward."
Verstappen tops the championship, 56 points ahead of Leclerc.
