2 hours ago
11
Key events
What’s happened on the track so far this weekend? Well, the good news for Russell was that he was fastest in first practice, but Antonelli had his feet up as this was a chance for rookies to get a go in one of a team’s cars. In second practice, Lando Norris pipped Russell, with Antonelli in fifth but unbothered as it was his first time out.
In this morning’s third practice, it was back to a Mercedes being quickest, and this time it was … George Russell:
George Russell built confidence for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix by topping the timesheets in the final practice session. The Mercedes driver has endured some difficult weeks but has led the way in two of the three practice sessions at Montmeló.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri followed, two tenths of a second behind, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third and the 2025 champion, Lando Norris, fourth in the other McLaren.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth but seven tenths down on Russell, ahead of Max Verstappen in sixth and the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli.
Antonelli, seeking a sixth straight Grand Prix triumph on Sunday, was left frustrated by traffic. The 19-year-old Italian’s first qualification simulation lap was spoiled by the slow-moving Lance Stroll, and on his second there were several cars blocking his way. “Why do I always get traffic? I don’t understand,” he complained over team radio.
Home fans were happy to see Fernando Alonso, cheering him on from the grandstand named after the two-time world champion, before what he says is probably his last race at Montmeló. Reuters
And here are the constructors’:
1. Mercedes 244pts
2. Ferrari 165pts
3. McLaren 116pts
4. Red Bull 69pts
5. Alpine 50pts
6. Racing Bulls 35pts
7. Haas 21pts
8. Williams 11pts
9. Audi 2pts
10. Aston Martin 1pt
11. Cadillac 0pts
We are half an hour from the off of qualifying for the snappily named Formula 1 MSC Cruises Gran Premio de Barcelona-Catalunya 2026. The Spanish Grand Prix – on the streets of Madrid – is scheduled for 13 September
Here are the lawyered standings, with Gasly still in eighth but much closer to Max Verstappen:
1. Kimi Antonelli (IT) Mercedes 156 points
2. Lewis Hamilton (GB) Ferrari 90pts
3. George Russell (GB) Mercedes 88pts
4. Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 75pts
5. Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 58pts
6. Lando Norris (GB) McLaren 58pts
7. Max Verstappen (Neth) Red Bull 43pts
8. Pierre Gasly (Fr) Alpine 35pts
9. Isack Hadjar (Fr) Red Bull 26pts
10. Liam Lawson (NZ) Racing Bulls 24pts
11. Oliver Bearman (GB) Haas 18pts
12. Franco Colapinto (Arg) Alpine 15pts
13. Arvid Lindblad (GB) Racing Bulls 11pts
14. Carlos Sainz (Sp) Williams 6pts
15. Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 5pts
16. Esteban Ocon (Fr) Haas 3pts
17. Gabriel Bortoleto (Br) Audi 2pts
18. Fernando Alonso (Sp) Aston Martin 1pt
19. Nico Hülkenberg (Ger) Audi 0pts
20. Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Cadillac 0pts
21. Sergio Pérez (Mex) Cadillac 0pts
22. Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 0pts
Preamble
Just when George Russell thought his luck could not get any worse …
Formula One and the FIA would like you to remember the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix for Kimi Antonelli’s fifth straight race win. That was a stunning achievement and one unsullied by what was going on around Mercedes’s young Italian. Lewis Hamilton came in second and no one can argue that the Ferrari driver did not deserve it. Everything else, however …
The string of penalties for pit-lane speeding seemed at first blush to suggest large-scale blundering by the teams; Alpine’s successful appeal against Pierre Gasly’s demotion from third to seventh, granted on Friday, exposed that Formula One itself had been at fault, leaving everyone unhappy except the lawyers. In short, they were measuring the wrong distance, and a swath of drivers – including Hamilton, but to no great detriment – were all deemed, wrongly, to have broken the speed limit by less than 0.1km/h.
No one will be seething more than Russell, whose Mercedes team compounded F1’s error by failing to have him serve his five-second penalty when he pitted again. This meant he then had to do a drive-through, costing him far more than five seconds and leaving him out of the points and now 68 behind his youthful teammate in the championship standings, and two points behind Hamilton.
None of the other teams whose drivers were penalised appealed, and so the current line from the authorities is that they have lost their right to do so because of the FIA’s statute of limitations on race matters. But … lawyers. And those who benefited from Gasly’s demotion are also unhappy at his reinstatement, with Isack Hadjar and Red Bull lodging an intent to appeal against his loss of a podium finish and McLaren doing likewise over Oscar Piastri, who served his five seconds, dropping from fourth to fifth. The teams had 96 hours to turn the lodging of an intent into an actual appeal, so that means we’ll know more by Tuesday at the latest.
Remember, this was the week when (some sort of) peace was supposed to have broken out. Modifications to the balance between petrol and battery for future seasons were agreed, to appease the critics led by Max Verstappen of this year’s regulations, which prevent drivers going flat-out and contributed to Oliver Bearman’s awful crash in Miami.
So that is the backdrop for today’s qualifying session in Barcelona, one that will take place simultaneously in bright sunshine and under a dark cloud.
Join me from 2.30pm for the buildup and 3pm for Q1, and send your thoughts on the racing and the lawyering to [email protected]
