George Russell will start the 2026 F1 Spanish GP from P6 as the Mercedes driver had a disappointing Q3 at the Madring on Saturday.
2nd in the World Championship, he is four spots behind Kimi Antonelli heading into tomorrow’s race, with Lewis Hamilton also ahead of him at the grid as the seven-time World Champion starts P4.
In Q1, the 28-year-old clipped the wall on the exit of turn 21 but avoided any damage to his left front or rear suspension. On this third push lap, he went to the top of the charts. Come Q2, he was down to 6th.
On the first runs in Q3, the driver of car #63 was 3rd quickest, 0.185s off provisional polesitter Lewis Hamilton, and just over a tenth away from his teammate. While he made a small improvement on the second runs, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc all made bigger leaps to drop him to the outside of the third row.
The Q1 brush with the wall and the Q3 issues for George Russell in 2026 F1 Spanish GP qualifying
Asked in the print media pen about his worries when he touched the wall, Russell explained it was only a brief concern.
He explained that he was a full 0.3s up on his previous attempt when he got to turn 11 and the tyres started to overheat on his W17. Russell was noticeably sliding around in the low-speed corners at the end of that lap. Ultimately he only found just over a tenth versus his first attempt.
“Obviously, it was slightly concerning in the moment, but the car was fine. I went out and topped the session afterwards.
“And then felt in the mix thereafter, but just the last lap. I was about three tenths up, tried pushing hard in turn 11, but tyres couldn’t take it and then lost all the lap time thereafter, so that was a bit annoying.”
Unsure of what will happen in the race
Regarding strategy and tyre degradation, it is a big unknown. George Russell explained that while the brand new venue is delivering tonnes of grip, the Pirelli tyres are sliding around in very high temperatures.
With graining a possibility, multiple stops could come into play.
“It’s a strange surface. It’s very high grip, yet the tyres are sliding quite a lot.
“So I don’t really know, and tomorrow’s going to be really interesting with the deg.”
Russell: New F1 Spanish GP track an enjoyable one but overtaking spot needed
On Thursday ahead of the 2026 F1 Spanish GP weekend, George Russell and many drivers talked about the risks but how enjoyable the high-speed circuit is. While that has proven correct in qualifying trim, the race is a different story.
Aside from crashes, and cars constantly cutting the very awkward turn 5 when trying to make a pass, the overtaking opportunities at the Madring are virtually zero.
The seven-time race winner believes there should be a genuine opportunity to overtake at the end of a long straight when creating a new circuit.
“I guess one small frustration in the design is just the lack of clear overtaking opportunities.
“On every track, at the end of a long straight, you need a clear opportunity to overtake, and the longest straight here goes into that tight roundabout section, so that’s probably the only thing I wish was different.”
