George Russell has secured pole position for the Catalan Grand Prix and can hope for his first victory in three months.
The Mercedes driver set the fastest lap in qualifying in Barcelona in 1:14.679 minutes and not only outdid his teammate Kimi Antonelli: the world championship leader only finished third, three tenths of a second behind. Record world champion Lewis Hamilton took second place in the Ferrari, only 64 thousandths of a second behind Russell.
This means that Antonelli will not start a Grand Prix from the front row of the grid for the first time this year. Starting positions four and five went to world champion Lando Norris in the McLaren and Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.
Nico Hülkenberg made it into the final qualifying section of the top ten for the first time in an Audi; he had been working towards this since the start of the season: four times in the six races so far, the German narrowly missed Q3 in eleventh place.
Ultimately, he came ninth, also because a competitor was eliminated: the final section of qualifying had to be interrupted after Charles Leclerc hit the track barrier violently and almost head-on with his Ferrari. The Monegasque driver was able to leave the car independently, but was therefore out of the hunt early.
Mercedes has won every Grand Prix so far this season. Antonelli has recently won five in a row and leads the World Championship by some margin. Hamilton is second, 66 points behind. Russell, who hasn’t been on the podium for four race weekends, is 68 points behind.