The Red Bull Racing star who had ground out a narrow victory in the sprint race earlier yesterday, spared no prisoners in the weekend’s most important tie attack. Changes to his car between sessions delivered big gains, putting the battle for pole beyond doubt early in the qualifying hour.
In Q3 he set two laps quick enough for pole - even his best time in sprint qualifying a day earlier would have been fast enough to seal the deal - with his best lap of 1 minutes 4.314 seconds gapping the field by 0.404 seconds.
“We tried to adjust the car a little bit after the things that we learned this morning,” he said. “I think it worked well.
“The car felt a lot better for me today. I could really attack the corners a bit more, and every run was just on point. It was very enjoyable out there.”
Norris, who had finished third behind teammate Oscar Piastri in the short race earlier on the day, lamented that the sprint race appeared to be a false dawn, with Red Bull Racing re-establishing its big advantage from earlier in the season at its home track.
“I think it was as much as we could do today,” he said of the almost half-second deficit around the sport’s briefest lap. “Max was in a league of his own - clearly much quicker than what we had.
“When you look at the pace today it’s clear that we’re going to have to give it a lot [to win on Sunday]. We’re going to need something extra to go our way in order to beat the pace of Max and the Red Bulls.”
Piastri has been set for third on the grid but had his fastest lap controversially deleted for exceeding track limits at turn 6. McLaren attempted to appeal the decision based on video evidence appearing to show the call was marginal at best, but the stewards deemed the protest inadmissible, dumping the ropeable Australian to seventh on the grid.
George Russell moved into third for Mercedes, the third straight round the German marque has got at least one car into the top three, further validating its recent turnaround in form.
“The car’s feeling really great at the moment,” Russell confirmed. “The team have worked so hard bringing these upgrades, and it feels like we’ve got a real fight on our hands, especially with Ferrari.
“We’re still a little bit behind McLaren, and Max and Red Bull were flying today, but it’s definitely going in the right direction for us.”
The quickest Ferrari was Carlos Sainz, who was just 0.011 seconds slower to line up alongside Russell on the second row.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc - the latter scrappy on his final lap and spinning off the road at the penultimate corner - will also split the third row between Mercedes and Ferrari.
Piastri lines up seventh alongside a lacklustre Sergio Pérez who was 0.888 seconds behind his dominant teammate around the 64-second lap. He just beat Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Ocon to the place, completing the top 10.
Daniel Ricciardo qualified 11th for RB on a weekend his place in Formula 1 has come under intense scrutiny following non-committal commentary from Red Bull bosses about keeping him in the car after the August break owing to his lukewarm form for much of the season.
The Australian will start alongside Kevin Magnussen on the sixth row, the Dane only 0.058s further back.
Pierre Gasly had been destined for 12th but was judged to have driven off the track between turns 6 and 7 on his final lap, losing his time and dropping him to 13th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda.
Fernando Alonso was a shock lowly elimination in 15th as the quickest Aston Martin driver on the team’s unrelenting slide down the competitive order.
Thai driver Alex Albon qualified 16th ahead of the newly re-signed Lance Stroll, who was knocked out 17th for Aston Martin.
Valtteri Bottas will line up 18th on the grid ahead of the under-pressure Logan Sargeant in the second Williams and Sauber teammate Zhou Guanyu, who qualified last for the fifth time this season.