Lewis Hamilton tells Mercedes pair “the fight is on” at Barcelona-Catalunya GP

Lewis Hamilton vowed to take the fight to Mercedes pair George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in Barcelona after securing his best qualifying result for Ferrari.

The seven-time world champion was just 0.064 seconds off clinching his first pole position since Hungary in July 2023, denied by a mighty lap from former Mercedes team-mate Russell.

Russell will start from pole as he begins his bid to fight back into championship contention.

His team-mate Antonelli will start from third in pursuit of a sixth win in a row, having opened up a 66-point lead over Hamilton, with Russell two points further back.

Mercedes have won every race this season and Hamilton knows he is up against it as he contends with the grid’s dominant force, but is prepared to carry the fight on Sunday.

“This is the closest I’ve been to the front qualifying right? So I will give it a go,” Hamilton said.

“I think clearly these guys (Mercedes) just seem to have extra in the pocket, every time we bring an upgrade they are 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 really want everyone at the factory to know how thankful I am because it felt great out there to put that lap together and see that we’re that close.

“It’s early in the season, so the fight is on!”

Hamilton has finished second to Antonelli at the previous two races but has struggled throughout the weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya.

From nowhere, he found pace in qualifying, topping the opening session.

Nobody was more surprised than the 41-year-old, who also revealed that he left the circuit between final practice and qualifying.

“Honestly I couldn’t believe when I was P1 in Q1. The gap was so big all weekend and I was thinking ‘why