Lewis Hamilton declared 'we have a race' after splitting the two Mercedes cars to qualify second in Barcelona. And he hopes Sunday will finally be the day he and Ferrari can take the fight to his old team.
The seven-time world champion qualified just 0.064 seconds slower than former team-mate George Russell. It is Hamilton's maiden Grand Prix front-row start as a Ferrari driver and first overall since the 2024 British Grand Prix. Russell was also on pole that day, and Hamilton won. They aren't in the same car anymore and Ferrari have been unable to compete with Mercedes in race conditions this year, but Hamilton is optimistic today could be the day that changes.
He said: 'Congrats to George, but we're in a good position to be able to fight tomorrow. We have a race! For us to be this close, less than a tenth between us, it's 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 and I'm hoping tomorrow we can squeeze some more out of this and, hopefully, keep up with these guys for once.'
Hamilton missed first practice on Friday and felt like he was playing catch-up after that. And to reset himself ahead of qualifying he left the track altogether – something he had never done before in his career. He said: 'For the first time ever, I left the track between FP3 and qualifying. I thought, I've got to get out of here and I went back to my motorhome. I was on the engineer call just on my phone, just to have a bit of a reset. And I came back and I was on it.'
As was Russell, who secured his 10th career pole ahead of his 100th Grand Prix start as a Mercedes driver. It's also the 256th pole secured by a Mercedes-powered car in World Championship history, equalling Ferrari's record. And it was just the tonic for Russell after a difficult run which has seen him slip to 68 points behind team-mate and title rival Kimi Antonelli.
He still has to convert it today but he declared after qualifying: 'I feel like my old self again, where every lap I'm doing my job and always fighting in those top positions. At the last few races, for numerous reasons, luck hasn't quite been on my side, but I came into this weekend as a clean slate, feeling good and it's great to be on pole.'
Antonelli, who also missed first practice, was three-tenths back and complained that he had 'no battery' by the end of his final effort. Team boss Toto Wolff said it was a 'tiny' error on the teenager's part as he left it too late to use the energy he had on board.
Hamilton's team-mate Charles Leclerc said he felt 'ashamed' after crashing out, while Lando Norris qualified fourth but was downbeat about McLaren's chances. He said: 'Around this track you need grip and a good rear, and that's something we don't have. So [challenging those ahead] is very unlikely.'
