{"id":1611,"date":"2026-06-13T16:49:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T16:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/?p=1611"},"modified":"2026-06-29T05:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T05:42:22","slug":"f1-russell-ends-antonellis-dominance-with-barcelona-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/f1-russell-ends-antonellis-dominance-with-barcelona-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"F1: Russell Ends Antonelli’s Dominance with Barcelona Pole"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BARCELONA<\/strong> \u2013 George Russell fired a warning shot in the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship battle by ending Kimi Antonelli’s recent dominance and securing pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mercedes driver delivered a stunning lap of 1:14.679<\/strong>, claiming his third pole position of the season and edging out Lewis Hamilton by just 0.064 seconds. Championship leader Antonelli could manage only third, more than three tenths adrift of his teammate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russell’s pace throughout the weekend had already marked him out as the favourite for pole. The Briton topped two of the three practice sessions and led the way in Q2, carrying that momentum into the decisive final qualifying shootout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q3 was briefly interrupted by a red flag after Charles Leclerc crashed at the exit of Turn 4. The Ferrari driver lost the rear of his car after drifting onto the dustier racing line, bringing his session to a premature end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the stoppage, only Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen had completed representative laps, but both were quickly eclipsed once the session resumed. Russell initially set the benchmark with a 1:15.145, narrowly ahead of Piastri, while Antonelli could only manage fourth on his first attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Italian improved significantly on his final run, posting a 1:14.998 and briefly moving ahead of Russell. However, the Mercedes veteran responded immediately with an exceptional lap to reclaim pole position. Hamilton then produced a late charge to snatch second place, pushing Antonelli down to third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lando Norris secured fourth for McLaren and will start alongside Antonelli on the second row. Verstappen qualified fifth for Red Bull, with teammate Isack Hadjar impressively taking sixth to complete the third row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It proved a frustrating afternoon for Piastri, who slipped to seventh despite showing strong pace earlier in the session. The Australian will line up alongside Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson, who continued his impressive run of form with eighth place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nico H\u00fclkenberg put Audi ninth on the grid, while Leclerc’s earlier crash left him tenth despite progressing into the final phase of qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further back, Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad narrowly missed out on Q3 in 11th, ahead of Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto. The Argentine continued his strong qualifying performances, outpacing teammate Pierre Gasly for the fifth time in the last six qualifying sessions, including sprint events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlos Sainz could manage only 16th for Williams, while Esteban Ocon was eliminated in Q1 for the third consecutive race weekend. Cadillac locked out the 10th row, with Sergio P\u00e9rez once again outperforming teammate Valtteri Bottas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Aston Martin, Lance Stroll qualified ahead of Fernando Alonso for the first time in 2026. Stroll secured 21st place, while the reigning World Champion endured a miserable session and will start from the back of the grid in 22nd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russell’s pole position not only gives Mercedes the upper hand heading into Sunday’s race but also reignites the intra-team battle with Antonelli. After several rounds dominated by the young Italian, the Briton has firmly reasserted himself in what is becoming one of the season’s most compelling championship fights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BARCELONA \u2013 George Russell fired a warning shot in the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship battle by ending Kimi Antonelli’s recent dominance and securing pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. The Mercedes driver delivered a stunning lap of 1:14.679, claiming his third pole position of the season and edging out Lewis Hamilton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1612,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions\/1612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}