Russell beats Hamilton to Barcelona pole as Leclerc crashes out

George Russell edged Lewis Hamilton to pole position in a closely contested qualifying session for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Russell’s third pole of the season came despite a red flag preventing him from setting two laps on fresh soft tires after Charles Leclerc crashed heavily at Turn 4.

RELATED: Leclerc shoulders blame for Q3 crash

Only Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen got laps in before the session was suspended, but when the session resumed, Russell and three other drivers headed out on their used soft tires and committed to racing-style pit stops to switch to fresh rubber for their final runs. Despite the partially worn rubber, Russell took provisional pole ahead of the second laps, pinching top spot from Piastri by 0.031s.

Teammate Kimi Antonelli was first to cross the line and moved into top spot, but Russell, fractionally quicker in the first two sectors, put together a mighty final split to move ahead by 0.319s.

The McLaren drivers, Mercedes’s presumed closest challengers, were next over the line but couldn’t keep up, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri 0.322s and 0.411s adrift respectively. Instead it was Lewis Hamilton – the last driver on track – who came closest to derailing Russell’s pole bid.

The seven-time champion was blistering in the middle sector in his Ferrari, but while he comfortably eclipsed Antonelli, he fell short of beating Russell by just 0.064s. Russell’s 10th career pole position – and the 150th for Mercedes in Formula 1 – was secure.

“Nice to feel the groove again,” he radioed to his team.

“It’s been a great weekend so far,” he continued out of the car. “I feel like my old self again where every lap I’m doing my job, always fighting.

“Those top positions obviously for the last few races for numerous reasons haven’t quite been on our side, but I came in this weekend with a clean slate, felt good, and it’s great to be on pole.”

Hamilton’s second place is his first front-row start for a grand prix as a Ferrari driver, and the Briton was enthusiastic to have come so close to topping Mercedes for pole.

“It feels great to be up here with them,” he said. “For us to be that close, less than 0.1s between us, is a real showing of the hard work that everyone at the factory has done to bring these upgrades to this track.

“We’ve just got to keep pushing, keep developing. I’m hoping tomorrow we can squeeze some more out of this and hopefully keep up with these guys for once.”

Antonelli will start off the front row for the first time this season after his largest qualifying defeat to Russell all year, but the Italian was optimistic his race pace would see him contend for victory on Sunday.

“It’s been a little bit of a difficult weekend so far for me,” he said. “I didn’t really have the feeling with the car. But the long run was strong yesterday [in practice], so that’s a positive. Today I’ve been lacking a little bit, but I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Antonelli heads a gaggle of five cars separated by just 0.092s on the grid, starting with Norris, with whom he will share the second row after outpacing the Briton by only 0.003s.

Red Bull Racing teammates Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar split the McLaren drivers to share the third row, with just 0.056s between them. Piastri was only 0.089s slower than Norris after a small slide through Turn 10 on his final lap, but the tight qualifying session turned that small deficit into seventh on the grid.

Liam Lawson turned his second consecutive Q3 appearance into eighth on the grid ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, who qualified inside the top 10 for the first time this season.

Leclerc qualified 10th without a time after crashing out of qualifying on his first lap of Q3. His Ferrari was slipping wide through the long Turn 4 but suddenly gripped up as he attempted to control the slide. Instantly he was catapulted into the barriers at speed.

It was an impact severe enough to warrant the medical car’s deployment, but thee Monaco native was able to pull himself from the wreckage apparently uninjured.

Arvid Lindblad missed a top-10 berth by 0.072s to take 11th on the grid ahead of Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto.

Franco Colapinto outqualified Pierre Gasly for the third time in four grands prix to take 13th on the grid ahead of his Alpine teammate in 14th place.

Oliver Bearman was 15th in the lead Haas ahead of Carlos Sainz on a difficult weekend for the overweight Williams car, the Spaniard lapping 2.599s off the pace.

Esteban Ocon was 0.192s short of a spot in Q2 and will start 17th, his fourth consecutive Q1 elimination of the season.

Alex Albon was 0.351s further back in 18th, the Thai driver looking uncomfortable throughout Q1, including with a moment over the gravel on his penultimate lap,

Sergio Perez led the battle at the back, beating Cadillac teammate Valtteri Bottas by 0.212s for 19th.

Lance Stroll outqualified Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso by just 0.057s to avoid last place in the classification. It was the first time the Canadian has outqualified his teammate for a grand prix since Silverstone 2024, some 42 rounds ago.

Both Aston Martin drivers were more than 1s adrift of Cadillac at the back of the pack.

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