F1 qualifying results: Who takes pole in Barcelona?

When the second practice hour ahead of the Formula 1 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix came to a close, there was a different feel around the sport.

After months of dominance from Mercedes, was McLaren truly back in the fight?

Lando Norris topped the second hour of practice, nipping George Russell atop the timing sheets by just 0.009 seconds. Then his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, clocked in third.

Meanwhile Drivers’ Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who slotted in fifth, more than a half-second behind Norris’ pace, conceded after the session that it was not going to be “easy” in Barcelona.

“Definitely George looks very quick, McLaren look very quick as well so it’s not going to be easy,” said Antonelli to the official F1 channel. “We’ll try to understand from tonight’s work and we’ll try to be ready for tomorrow.”

He added: “It’s been a bit tricky, single lap. The window is so small, tyres are overheating quite a lot.

“[I’m] just trying to find the best balance, of course with only one lap it’s difficult, but I think overall there’s still work to do, quite a bit, but I’m quite confident ahead of tomorrow.”

Antonelli sat out the first hour of practice, giving way to Mercedes test driver Fred Vesti for one of the require rookie sessions.

Can Norris convert a strong Friday into pole today? Or will Mercedes fight back in Barcelona? We will find out in a few hours, as qualifying begins at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, and we will be following all the action here live!

F1 qualifying results: Barcelona

Here is the provisional starting grid, which will be filled in throughout the qualifying session:

F1 Barcelona-Catalunya qualifying

Here is how the qualifying hour unfolded. All updates are in Eastern time.

Q1

9:59: Hometown favorite Sainz is one of the first drivers to leave his garage. He is lined up at the end of pit lane as we wait for a green light.

9:57: A reminder that Pirelli went a step softer with the tires this year, wth the C5 as the soft, the C4 as the medium, and the C3 as the hard. That has brought strategy into play for the Grand Prix, and degradation into play for the qualifying hour. Plus, the track temperature is 51 degrees Celsius, which is also leading to some degradation issues.

9:50: About ten minutes until qualifying gets underway.

What happened in FP3?

What happened in FP3?

Mercedes, specifically Russell, responded.

The veteran driver topped the timing sheets ahead of Piastri and Leclerc, setting the stage for what could be an epic qualifying session. As for Antonelli, the Drivers’ Championship leader was seventh, and even received a reprimand for erratic driving after the session.

Here are the full results from FP3: