George Russell captured pole for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix with a time of 1:14.679 on Saturday afternoon over former teammate Lewis Hamilton. Russell’s Q3 time was just 0.064 seconds ahead of Hamilton, who took the second front row starting spot from Kimi Antonelli on a last-minute flying lap.
Russell and Antonelli have split pole position through the opening seven rounds, with Antonelli slightly ahead with four to Russell’s three.
Russell is looking to bounce back since losing second in the drivers’ championship last week at Monaco to Lewis Hamilton, as Russell finished out of the points and Hamilton finished in second behind the championship leader, Antoneli.
Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc, crashed into the barriers in turn four on his first qualifying lap in Q3. This is the second time in two straight competitive sessions that Leclerc has crashed, following his red-flag creating crash on a late restart in the Monaco Grand Prix.
“I’m okay,” Leclerc told F1TV. “Apart from feeling very ashamed of coming here to speak in front of the camera after. Another, what if. Unfortunately, last week was the same, with what if we didn’t have that issue this weekend, is what if I didn’t make that mistake? And yeah, I just felt ashamed of not being, putting everything together on what was a very positive weekend. So far, the feeling is back, and I’m still optimistic for tomorrow, but I should be starting higher up, and I don’t because of a mistake of mine.”
Leclerc had the second fastest time in Q2 and will try to focus on that as his side of the Ferrari garage makes repairs ahead of tomorrow’s grand prix. He’ll start 10th on the grid.
Lando Norris joins Antonelli on the second row ahead of an all-Red Bull third row with Max Verstappen out qualifying his teammate, Isack Hadjar, who lost his Monaco podium finish due to the Alpine ruling yesterday.
Oscar Piastri qualified seventh ahead of Liam Lawson and Audi’s Niko Hulkenberg.
Arvid Lindbald, Gabriel Bortoleto, Pierre Gasly, Oliver Bearman, and Carlos Sainz were all knocked out after Q2 and will start 11th through 16th, respectively.
The Haas of Estaban Ocon, Williams of Alex Albon, Cadillacs of Sergio Perez and Valterie Bottas, and Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso were eliminated in Q1.
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