Norris aims to capitalise after Max admits dominance 'completely gone'

Lando Norris is determined to grab the "opportunity" presented by his second career F1 pole position in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix after Max Verstappen declared Red Bull's dominance to now be "completely gone".Norris will start from pole position ahead of championship leader Verstappen having produced what he described as the best-ever lap of his career in a blistering end to qualifying at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday.The Briton, who won his maiden Grand Prix in Miami last month, has finished in the top two at three of the past four events and starts from the head of the grid on a Sunday for the first time in nearly three years. And although aware that the Barcelona polesitter can be vulnerable to attack owing to the long run down to the first corner, Norris is excited by what is to come in a 66-lap race that he believes any of the increasingly-close leading four teams could yet win."It's probably one of the places you don't want to start on pole, but it's an opportunity for us to go out and try and win a race you know. Trending "We've not done loads of long running. We've done a bit and I think we were close, as it always has been. "I think tomorrow is not like this car is way quicker. I think between Mercedes, ourselves, Red Bull, Ferrari, there's eight cars that could have probably been on pole today and that have a chance of probably winning the race."So it's about making the least mistakes, similar to today, and just trying to execute another good race that we normally do."Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Norris added: "The race pace between everyone is extremely close. I think it is interesting tomorrow to see what happens laps 10-20." Max: Red Bull dominance 'completely gone' - but 'excited' for victory tussleWhile Verstappen may have missed out on pole by a miniscule margin of just 0.020s, the 12-month turnaround in fortunes for Red Bull at the fast, flowing Spanish circuit was still stark.At last year's race, Verstappen claimed pole by almost half a second. He then won on the Sunday by the best part of half a minute.Red Bull had brought more upgrades to their 2024 car this weekend, whereas McLaren had not, and Verstappen said of the RB20's pace: "I think it's been OK, but not good enough, clearly."These kinds of tracks, I was hoping, of course, to be ahead. But the other teams are catching up. We've seen this already in the last few races, so it's definitely a lot harder. We need to do everything perfect to be first. We just need to bring more performance to the car." He then more bluntly added: "We need to push on. We need to bring parts faster, better. I mean, we've had a very dominant car last year. That is very, like… I mean, it's completely gone, naturally."And, yeah, we just need to really try and make a step ahead again."Not that the disappearance of their two-season advantage means to say that the Dutchman - who beat Norris and Mercedes' George Russell to win in Canada despite not having the weekend's fastest car - is anywhere near out of the equation to claim a seventh win of the campaign and increase his 56-point championship lead. "I think it is just going to be exciting to see how we fare against them in race pace," he told Sky Sports F1."When I look at my race pace, I think it is OK but nothing special compared to Mercedes or McLaren, Ferrari."I felt OK, but I didn't really feel like there was a very strong pace compared to others."Also just trying to fine tune our balance as well."So, I think what we did going into qualifying will help for [the race]. I felt a bit draggy in qualifying with the wing that we had, it was quite big, but hopefully it will help a bit [the race]." Can Hamilton and Russell work together?On the second row, Lewis Hamilton and Russell line up together with both Mercedes drivers knowing it could be important to be ahead of one another to get strategic priority.It's a long run down to Turn One, so the Mercedes pair will be in the slipstream of Norris and Verstappen, with the two Ferraris right in behind for good measure.Their long run pace throughout practice has been competitive and Russell is optimistic they can challenge for the win. "I think strategically, the tyre degradation, you can do some things with the strategy, but if you have got one-tenth of pace in the car, that will always win out over strategy," Russell told Sky Sports F1."For sure we will try something but we hope we have got the pace to fight with Max and Lando."I think we do have the pace to fight with Max and Lando for victory."Hamilton and Russell collided at the start of last year's Qatar Grand Prix when both drivers sniffed a potential chance of victory. They were free to race last time out in Canada, with Russell coming out on top, but they may need to work together to stand a chance of outfoxing McLaren and Red Bull."I think it would be very difficult. I think these two [Norris and Verstappen] will be very quick, but position is everything," said Hamilton