George Russell bounces back in style to claim pole at Barcelona-Catalunya GP

Is George Russell’s run of rotten luck finally over? The Mercedes driver said he felt “like my old self again” after scorching to pole position for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. He was fractionally faster than second-placed Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari, who nearly snatched top spot with a dramatic surge at the last, capitalising on what is clearly a notable upgrade to the Scuderia machine.

Kimi Antonelli, Russell’s 19-year-old teammate, will aim for a sixth consecutive victory from third on the grid while Charles Leclerc of Ferrari said there were “no excuses” and that he felt “very ashamed” after crashing out spectacularly in Q3 and causing a red flag – a week after hitting a wall at his home race in Monaco.

After Hamilton’s somewhat unexpectedly strong pace for Ferrari, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri of McLaren were fourth and seventh respectively, with the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar fifth and sixth.

To mark his 100th race for Mercedes, Russell secured his 10th pole, and the 150th for the team overall. On his arrival in Spain he said the pressure was off, having fallen 68 points behind the drivers’ championship leader, Antonelli, owing to a series of mishaps: the latest coming with what proved an incorrect pit-lane speeding penalty in Monaco.

The 28-year-old suffered notable misfortune in Canada last month, a battery failure costing him almost certain victory, as well as in China and Japan in March. But the notion he can race with freedom, and enjoy the benefits of Mercedes’ superiority, was supported by his phenomenal hot lap of 1min 15.717sec on the 4.657km circuit – enough to hold off the flying Hamilton by 0.064.

“Just really happy to be back in my groove,” Russell said. “It’s been a difficult few races, obviously bad luck, and some poor performances in there, but I went back to an approach I knew works for me.”

Asked if those changes in approach were technical or mental, he said: “Car setup, mentality … Going back to basics. These cars are so complicated … it’s challenging to get on top of things, especially when I’ve got a guy like this [Antonelli] next to me performing so well … I’m just glad to feel myself again, feel at one with the car again.”

Asked if his exceptional pace for Ferrari was a surprise, meanwhile, Hamilton said: “For sure. It’s been a very, very tricky weekend. Really, really struggled to get on pace [and] never been so down before, in terms of the gap between Charles and I and everybody else … I think it was one second, in one session, going into the front row. I needed to make a huge leap going into qualifying.

“This is really down to everyone back in the factory. They’ve been working so hard, for them to bring this upgrade here … I can’t thank them enough. Tomorrow it would be nice, for once, be able to hold on to them [Mercedes].”

After his spectacular crash, Leclerc said there was no one to blame but him. “I tried to release brakes earlier, tried to carry more speed,” he said. “But I went on the dirty side of the track and lost the rear. There was not much to excuse myself. Today, and this weekend, I think everything felt really good. In these days I need to deliver and I feel very ashamed in general.”

Antonelli, despite his commanding lead in the drivers’ championship, was relatively downbeat. “I’m struggling with the feeling of the car, very low grip here, and I’ve just been attacking a bit too much in the corners,” he said. “In the last lap, I lost basically everything in the last sector … Definitely not the best performance … Still P3, and we focus on tomorrow.”

Despite his heavy crash, Leclerc remained upbeat for a race that may feature a three-stop strategy for some on a circuit that brings significant tyre degradation. “We can do great tomorrow,” he said, referring to his chances rather than Hamilton’s. “We can come back. I’m optimistic. But for now, the disillusion of ‘quali’ is all I can think of.”