Spanish GP: All to Fight for after a Solid Qualifying

In Q1, both drivers headed out on Soft tyres. After their first laps on board, George was in P5, just 0.2 seconds away from Leclerc in P1. Lewis in P8 had first slight difficulties getting his tyres in the right window. However, on his second attempt with fresh tyres, he managed to set the fastest time and went safely through to Q2.

In the second qualifying segment, Lewis fitted a used Soft tyre and went P13, while George managed P6 on a new set. As the cooler temperatures made it more challenging to work out the necessary out lap prep, our Mercedes duo tried again with a new set of Soft tyres. With a slightly different approach to the out laps, Lewis and George successfully improved their lap times. With P2 and P3, both drivers made it into Q3.

Q3 presented the usual close fight for top positions. Track temperature was now down to 35 degrees. Trying to get the best possible prep lap, our Mercedes duo let the other drivers go first, and went out a bit later. After the first shootout, Lewis was in P3, George close behind in P4, but with a less than ideal out lap. For their second and final runs, both drivers put on another new set of Soft tyres. Both drivers improved their lap times but kept their initial positions.

After an extremely close qualifying session, Lewis and George finished third and fourth. The top nine are within seven and a half tenths of each other. Lewis and George are just over three tenths off Lando Norris' pole time. A solid result for the team and a second row lock out.

All to fight for in the race, as race pace is key here in Barcelona. The team now has time overnight to analyze the data and prepare for the Spanish Grand Prix tomorrow. We can expect 66 action-packed laps around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, starting at 15:00 local time (14:00 UK time).

George Russell

The car has been feeling great this weekend. Our pace was strong throughout practice, and we felt confident going into Qualifying. A second-row lock-out is a decent result but the gap to Norris and Verstappen was slightly bigger than we expected. Both mine and Lewis set good laps, but I don’t think either of us felt that we maximised them. Getting the tyres perfectly in the window around a challenging track like this is so difficult. I think those ahead managed to do that and maybe we didn’t today.

On a circuit like this, the ultimate race pace of a car will always win out. I think our race pace looked good throughout the weekend so far and I hope we can fight for the podium and potentially victory. The recent steps we’ve taken with the car are clearly helping and we’re looking forward to building on that momentum.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

The car balance has been trickier than yesterday. At times, it looked like we might have had an opportunity to challenge for the front row. In Q3 though, the pace of Norris and Verstappen was just out of reach for us.

The positive is that we have both cars at the sharp end of the field. That will create some opportunities in terms of strategy. The key thing tomorrow is going to be race pace and tyre degradation. We looked decent on the long run yesterday and we've done a bit of work on the setup overnight, so our aim is that we have made another step in the right direction. It is also encouraging that the hard work of everyone in the team is steadily moving us closer to the front, and hopefully we can make further steps in the next few races.