One moment Lando Norris stood in his socks outside McLaren’s burning paddock home; the next he produced the lap of his life to beat the world’s greatest driver to pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix.

On an eventful day, it had looked as certain as death and taxes that Max Verstappen would lead off Sunday's race at Circuit de Catalunya, but the British driver’s burgeoning confidence claimed the honour by two-hundredths of a second.

Loud cheers met the most dazzling qualifying heist of the season. Almost as if a real contest, one that enduringly challenges Lando’s big pal and supreme champion, Max, might just be about to catch light.

‘Let’s f***ing go, baby,’ declared 24-year-old Norris after banking only the second pole of his career and first of the season, having had his race suit fished out from inside the smouldering building. ‘It’s my best pole. I’ve not had that many of them, but it is special after what happened today. It was my best-ever lap.’

His moment of glory came only five hours after his so-called ‘Team Hub’ was evacuated. Fire engines and ambulances rolled in. One unnamed team member, and four local marshals, who had rushed to the scene, were treated at the medical centre on site or at a nearby hospital.

Lando Norris secured a stunning pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix for McLaren

Quite a day, then. Norris had to decamp, using team principal Zak Brown’s adjoining office to change. It was a make-do-and-mend sort of day, until Norris pounced so incisively.

The story of his pole saw Verstappen two-tenths ahead as the Briton took off for his final flying lap. Norris then pressed his case at any corner where a fraction of an inch of speed was to be found, his lap gathering in likely pole potential all the way.

Norris then told the ups and downs of his afternoon, starting with the fire. ‘It was a scare for the whole team and more of a stressful day than I would have liked,’ he said.

‘I lost my shoes, but that was as bad as it got for me.

‘Otherwise, it has been a little bit messy. I have one or two sets of everything, and they managed to get some stuff out. Some of it smells pretty bad from the fire. Nothing’s been an issue. I’ve never been the kind of guy to complain.

Joining the British party were Lewis Hamilton, third best, and George Russell, fourth, for Mercedes, where there was more intrigue. This came as Russell complained over the radio: ‘What was Lewis prepping that lap?’ It wasn’t clear what he meant, and he was told the issue would be discussed afterwards. It seems Russell was surprised to find himself and his team-mate trying to take the same tow, off Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.

The exchange came only days after an anonymous email claimed Hamilton was being ‘sabotaged’ by the team. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff denied the accusation, calling the correspondence the work of a ‘lunatic’.

This ruck is not over.