Russell feeling ‘like my old self again’ after securing pole position for Barcelona-Catalunya GP

George Russell was overjoyed after he clinched pole position for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, admitting that his performance so far has made him “feel like my old self again”.

The Mercedes driver suffered a weekend to forget in Monaco as his chances of finishing on the podium – or even in the points – were ruined by a late drive-through penalty, which he was handed after failing to serve an original penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Seeing his deficit to team mate Kimi Antonelli increase to 68 points in the Standings, Russell admitted that he was “dying for a smooth weekend” in Barcelona, which has so far come to fruition.

After leading in FP1 and FP3, the Briton was consistently towards the top in Qualifying and claimed provisional pole. Despite late efforts from Antonelli and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, his final effort of 1m 14.679s was enough to secure pole position.

“It’s been a great weekend so far – I kind of feel like my old self again, where every lap I’m doing my job and always fighting in those top positions,” he said after the session. “Obviously the last few races, for numerous reasons, haven’t quite been on our side but I came into this weekend with just a clean slate, felt good and, yeah, just good to be on pole.”

Although the Silver Arrows have established themselves as the team to beat, Russell’s season has been marred by technical problems and self-confessed weaker performances in Miami and Monaco, which have played a role in Antonelli winning an impressive five Grands Prix in a row.

The Italian settled for third, but Qualifying also demonstrated that Ferrari and McLaren could prove to be tough competition in Sunday’s race, leaving Russell to anticipate a challenging day.

He explained: “I think it’s going to be an interesting race tomorrow. Lewis did an amazing job to get up there – I think that was a real surprise.

"We thought the fight was with ourselves and McLaren, and then Lewis has been really quick all session so I’m sure there’s going to be a fight on our hands.

“Obviously Kimi’s been doing an amazing job, so tomorrow’s now going to be easy from every standpoint but I feel ready.”