Qualifying at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP was bound to be exciting. With the Mercedes and Ferrari boys fighting for the World Drivers’ Championship, and the heat radiating around the circuit, anticipation was high.
Q1
Q1 took a slow start, with the temperature reflecting what we had in FP3 earlier in the day, drivers were tentative to get out onto the circuit. Lewis Hamilton picked up an early black and white flag for driving ‘unnecessarily slowly’, a move which could have compromised those attempting early flying laps.
With seven minutes to go, Carlos Sainz found himself running wide after a lockup. Lance Stroll also took a wide line through the gravel, causing a brief yellow flag on track.
Q2
The drivers started making their way onto track with 12 minutes to go. McLaren driver Oscar Piastri was first to head out. All drivers were on the soft tyre compound for this section of qualifying, and six of those on used tyres.
It was a seemingly uneventful Q2, with the shock exception of Audi driver Nico Hulkenburg setting a lap fast enough to get his car into the final session of Qualifying. Hulkenburgs Q2 time was a huge achievement for Hulkenburg and the Audi team, who have struggled a lot in qualifying so far this season.
Q3
The third session of qualifying was rough for Ferrari. Charles Leclerc was into the gravel and subsequently the wall between Turns 4 and 5. The quicker of the two Ferrari drivers in Q2 walked away from the car, seemingly unscathed. Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen already had times on the board by this point. This gave them an advantage over the rest of the grid.
After a short duration after the incident, the session restarted. The fight for pole position was now on. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli was looking for his fifth pole of the 2026 season. In the end, George Russell took pole ahead of Lewis Hamilton in Qualifying at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP both of whom will be absolutely delighted with this result. Kimi Antonelli took third, he will be ready to fight those around him for tomorrow’s race.
Image: Formula 1 via X