Fight is on for Hamilton as he and Russell reset successfully

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, The last time Lewis Hamilton and George Russell shared the front row was at the 2024 British Grand Prix By Andrew Benson F1 Correspondent Published 29 minutes ago Lewis Hamilton said "the fight is on" after achieving his best qualifying result since joining Ferrari at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Hamilton qualified second to Mercedes driver George Russell by just 0.064 seconds and said the result proved that "what we're doing is working, we're improving as a team". Ferrari brought a significant aerodynamic upgrade to the Spanish race and Hamilton fought back from a difficult run through practice to take his best qualifying result since the 2024 British Grand Prix. The 41-year-old joined Ferrari in 2025 and had a difficult first season, struggling to get on terms with team-mate Charles Leclerc, although he did take a pole and win in the sprint race in China last year. But he has looked much more back to form this year. His previous best grand prix qualifying result for Ferrari was third in Monaco last weekend. At Silverstone two years ago, Russell led Hamilton to a Mercedes one-two in qualifying and the seven-time champion went on to take what was his first victory for nearly three years. Asked about his prospects of a repeat, and a first grand prix win for Ferrari, Hamilton said: "It's the closest I've been to the front in quali, right? So, I'll give it a go. "These guys just seem to have extra in the pocket. Every time we bring an upgrade, they're still ahead, so we've got some work ahead of us. "It's great for us, this is the closest we've been pace-wise, I think, in quali. And I'm so grateful to the guys back in the team. "I've seen how focused and how hard everyone's working, and everyone's just quiet and goes about their business and is just so passionate. "But I really want them to know how thankful I am, because it felt great out there to put a lap together and see that we're that close, this early." Russell beats Hamilton to Barcelona pole Published 2 hours ago Barcelona GP Qualifying Review: Russell Bounces Back Hamilton's result was a surprise as he had been off the pace throughout the second and third practice sessions after handing his car to junior driver Dino Beganovic for the first session. He took the unusual step of leaving the paddock between final practice and qualifying to try to get himself in the right head space for the session. "I was thinking all weekend, 'Why am I half a second off?' Hamilton said. "And I just was down everywhere. Struggled through (Turn) Three, struggled through Turn Nine and having that confidence in that high-speed. "But the engineers did a great job with the small adjustments on the set-up. "For the first time ever, I left the track between P3 and qualifying. I said, 'I've got to get out of here.' And I went back to my motorhome and I was just on the engineer call, just on my phone, but I kind of went where I had a bit of a reset. Came back and I was a