Lewis Hamilton tells Mercedes pair “the fight is on” at Barcelona-Catalunya GP

By Scott Hunt, Press Association F1 Reporter, Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton vowed to take the fight to Mercedes pair George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in Barcelona after securing his best qualifying result for Ferrari.

The seven-time world champion was just 0.064 seconds off clinching his first pole position since Hungary in July 2023, denied by a mighty lap from former Mercedes team-mate Russell.

Russell will start from pole as he begins his bid to fight back into championship contention.

His team-mate Antonelli will start from third in pursuit of a sixth win in a row, having opened up a 66-point lead over Hamilton, with Russell two points further back.

Mercedes have won every race this season and Hamilton knows he is up against it as he contends with the grid’s dominant force, but is prepared to carry the fight on Sunday.

“This is the closest I’ve been to the front qualifying right? So I will give it a go,” Hamilton said.

“I think clearly these guys (Mercedes) just seem to have extra in the pocket, every time we bring an upgrade they are still ahead so we’ve got some work ahead of us.

“It’s great for us, this is the closest we’ve been pace-wise.

“I really want everyone at the factory to know how thankful I am because it felt great out there to put that lap together and see that we’re that close.

“It’s early in the season, so the fight is on!”

Hamilton has finished second to Antonelli at the previous two races but has struggled throughout the weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya.

From nowhere, he found pace in qualifying, topping the opening session.

Nobody was more surprised than the 41-year-old, who also revealed that he left the circuit between final practice and qualifying.

“Honestly I couldn’t believe when I was P1 in Q1. The gap was so big all weekend and I was thinking ‘why am I half a second off’? “Hamilton added.

“The engineers did a great job with the small adjustments in setup.

“For the first time ever I left the track between P3 and qualifying, it was like ‘I have got to get out of here’.

“I went back to my motorhome and I was on the engineer call just on my phone but I kind of went away and had a bit of a reset, came back, and I was able to somehow get back on it.

“Whatever I did it worked!”

Russell has been in commanding form throughout the weekend as he bids to banish the misfortune which has decimated his title tilt.

The 28-year-old has failed to score at the previous two races, with an engine failure in Montreal and penalty problems in Monaco leading to a huge championship swing in favour of Antonelli.

“I feel like my old self again,” Russell said.

“I went back to an approach that I knew works for me this weekend. It feels back to what I felt at the start of the year, in testing, Melbourne, China. I felt comfortable in the car and really happy.

“More than anything, I am pleased to feel more at home again.”

Antonelli said he would need to play the “long game” on Sunday, as he bids to become only the sixth driver in Formula One history to win six or more races in a row.

Hamilton will be without the support of his team-mate Charles Leclerc, who crashed for the third time in eight days in Q3 and is set to line up from 10th.

Lando Norris claimed fourth for McLaren ahead of Max Verstappen in fifth.