Russell gets his Barcelona Pole

By Mark Gero

With two retirements in the last two races, George Russell made up for his disappointment by taking pole for Sunday’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix Saturday afternoon with a 1:14:679 quickest time at the Circuit de Catalunya, making it an all British front row with the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton second. Series leader Kimi Antonelli for the first time this season, failed to qualify for the front row, and ended up in third.

Lando Norris finished in fourth in the McLaren, followed by the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who never could find his rhythm all day. His Red Bull teammate, Isack Hadjar, finished right behind the Dutchman in sixth. The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri was seventh, with Liam Lawson in the Racing Bulls continuing his best performance in qualifying in eighth. Nico Hulkenberg, who placed well in qualifying here last season, now duplicated this by taking ninth.

For Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished tenth, it was not a good day as the Monegasque, who lost control as his wheel snapped and ran him across the gravel and struck the barriers with 8:30 left in the final session. Leclerc afterwards admitted that “He felt ashamed about what he did”. It was the only red flag of qualifying, which only lasted a few minutes as the marshals took Leclerc’s car off the circuit.

Russell set the best time right at the last moment, following the provisional pole set by Antonelli. But a last-minute surge by Hamilton nearly got his first pole in quite a while, but for Russell himself, it felt like it was the best feeling he had in quite a while.

“It’s been a great weekend so far – I kind of feel like my old self again, where every lap I’m doing my job and always fighting in those top positions,” he said. “Obviously the last few races, for numerous reasons, haven’t quite been on our side but I came into this weekend with just a clean slate, felt good and, yeah, just good to be on pole.

I think it’s going to be an interesting race tomorrow. Lewis did an amazing job to get up there – I think that was a real surprise.

We thought the fight was with ourselves and McLaren, and then Lewis has been really quick all session so I’m sure there’s going to be a fight on our hands.

Obviously Kimi’s been doing an amazing job, so tomorrow’s now going to be easy from every standpoint but I feel ready.”

Russell needs this success, as the Briton trails Hamilton, who is now second in the championship, by two points and Antonelli by 68, who has won the last five races in a row.