BARCELONA, Spain — George Russell has secured pole position for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix in a close-fought qualifying hour on Saturday.
Bouncing back from a frustrating round in Monaco, the Mercedes driver was consistently one of the quickest throughout qualifying and his spectacular effort of 1 minute and 14.679 seconds was unbeatable, earning him a third pole position of the season.
“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,” Russell 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.”
Lewis Hamilton made his return to the front row in style with a last-gasp attempt for Ferrari, demoting Kimi Antonelli to third in the second Ferrari with a lap of 1 minute and 14.747 seconds.
“All weekend we’ve been kind of four tenths off these guys [Mercedes], so even with the upgrade we thought maybe that’s where we were,” said Hamilton. “But for us to be that close, less than a tenth between us, it’s a real showing of the hard work everyone at the factory has done to bring these upgrades to this track, so a big, big thank you to everyone back in Maranello.”
McLaren’s Lando Norris claimed fourth, ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.
