George Russell took pole position at the Circuit de Catalunya as he just about beat Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton by less than 1 tenth of a second.
Q1
Fernando Alonso indicated earlier in the week that this could be the last time that he races at what has been his home circuit for so many years, but unfortunately it wouldn’t end up being a great send off as he was the slowest of anybody during Q1, being outqualified by teammate Lance Stroll for the first time in 42 races.
We were very close to seeing a double elimination for both Spanish drivers during the first part of qualifying, with Carlos Sainz teetering in and around the drop zone for much of the session. However, the Williams driver had just enough pace in his final lap to ensure that he would be able to climb up to 16th and just squeeze through into Q2.
ELIMINATED
17. Esteban Ocon (Haas) +0.192
18. Alex Albon (Williams) +0.543
19. Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +0.664
20. Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +0.876
21. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +1.877
22. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +1.934
Q2
The poor showing from Spanish drivers ahead of their home crowd continued going into Q2 as Carlos Sainz was by far the slowest person on the track. He would end up more than two seconds adrift of safety, and was even nearly 1.5 seconds slower than the next slowest driver.
McLaren looked to be surprisingly under threat at one point during Q2, having been in 8th and 10th place respectively after their initial laps, though these were done on a used set of tyres. Furthermore, Norris had been complaining about his car constantly locking the rear tyres. The two cars were able to eventually make it through to Q3 in rather comfortable fashion, but neither would be looking likely to challenge for pole position, a surprise following how quick they seemed during practice.
ELIMINATED
11. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +0.072
12. Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +0.233
13. Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +0.423
14. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +0.493
15. Ollie Bearman (Haas) +0.621
16. Carlos Sainz (Williams) +2.059
Q3
Charles Leclerc experienced his second crash in one week after putting his Ferrari into the wall in the early parts of Q3. He had attempted to catch his car from sliding as he came towards the exit of turn 4, but while counter steering it seemed that the car gripped back up and sent him off track. The crash means that, despite having a car that looked like it could challenge the pole, Leclerc will start tomorrow’s race in 10th.
Most of the field were still looking to set their first flying laps by the time qualifying resumed, with Piastri and Verstappen having set the benchmark by setting times before the red flag was thrown out. A few drivers had gone out to still do some banker laps, with only Russell able to take provisional pole away from Piastri, albeit by a small margin.
Kimi Antonelli would only give himself one chance at taking pole position, and looked rather quick on track as he briefly went fastest on track. However, Mercedes teammate George Russell was going even quicker, and would snatch pole position away by more than three tenths.
Hamilton was Ferrari’s last hope in this session, and was looking really fast in his Ferrari. After a slightly slower first sector, Hamilton would set the best sector 2 of anybody during the session, being slightly ahead of Russell going into the last part of the lap. But, a slower sector 3 meant that Hamilton would just miss out on his first pole position since 2023 by less than 1 tenth of a second.
Qualifying Results
1. George Russell (Mercedes) 1:14.679
2. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.064
3. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.319
4. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.322
5. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.342
6. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +0.398
7. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.411
8. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.863
9. Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +1.978
10. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) NO TIME
