George Russell needed that.
This was Russell’s first pole in any qualifying format in four races. His previous, in Austria, came at a time it was still easy to believe he might be able to overhaul teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli. It was his second P1 start in a row and his third pole in four grands prix — or fourth in five if you count the Canada sprint pole — and victory on Sunday saw his deficit reduced to 40 points, down from a season-high 66 just two weeks earlier.
Since then, however, Antonelli has found another gear, while Ferrari and McLaren have inserted themselves into the fight. Russell hasn’t started on the front row of a grand prix yet.
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How important is it that the drought has now been broken, even if it’s just sprint qualifying?
“It’s been a while since I’ve been at the top of the timesheets in any session, so it’s nice to remind myself that I can still do it and that I’ve still got it,” he said.
“The summer break came at a good time and gave me the opportunity to reset and come into this weekend with a fresh mindset.
“I arrived here with an open mind, because my confidence wasn’t at its highest level, so I’ve tried to approach this weekend as though it’s the first race of the season, not overthink things and focus on the basics.
“So far that seems to be working well.”
There are some other stats that will buoy him as he contemplates the rest of F1’s first weekend back from the break.
Russell has taken two previous sprint poles this year, and on both occasions he turned them into victories.
Last time he took sprint pole, in Canada, he took the grand prix pole the following day, and he was in a position to win the race before his engine failed.
Of course you can cut that the other way too: that Russell is better at rolling out competitively, putting him at an advantage on these fast-paced sprint weekends.
But at 59 points down on his teammate, he’ll take what he can get.
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ANTONELLI IS DOWN BUT NOT OUT
On the flip side, though, Antonelli had a clear explanation for his 0.227-second deficit — roughly the average arrears to Russell when he’s been beaten in qualifying.
Carrying too much speed into the final corner on his first lap in SQ1 saw him sliding through the gravel, where he dealt himself serious floor damage.
Reports in the Italian media suggest it cost him 0.6s of performance, which the team reduced to around 0.3s with some hasty repairs before SQ2.
Subtract that from his time — admittedly rough maths — and he would’ve been on sprint pole.
It perhaps explains why he was so nonplussed to qualify fifth.
“I was struggling quite a lot in the low-speed corners,” he said — and the turn 11-12 chicane was where he racked up almost all his deficit.
“Once you’ve had a moment like that, it can be difficult to rebuild the confidence and put everything together. Even so, the gaps were very small, so there are still positives to take from the session.
“We’ll use [the sprint] to gather information and put ourselves in the strongest position for qualifying later in the day.“
Antonelli’s sprint record isn’t stellar, with no poles to date and only one victory — in Silverstone — to go with his podium in Canada.
But with so few sprints paying so few points — and with his short-race form not having cost him so far this season — there’s only so much to read into his result before Saturday qualifying and the grand prix.
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McLAREN STILL IN THE MIX
Russell led a top four separated by just 0.099s. Lando Norris was his closest challenger, at just 0.041s off the pace, but Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri were also in contention to pinch top spot.
Having two cars on the front row is particularly heartening for McLaren, which was optimistic that its big Hungary upgrade would keep it at the head of the field.
The telemetry demonstrates that McLaren was slightly quicker than Mercedes through most of the meaningful corners, particularly through the second sector.
But not for the first time, it’s getting beaten down the straights despite having the same Mercedes engine in the back.
Norris is almost 0.25s down on Russell at the end of the flat-out section from turn 3 to turn 7, but the engine disparity really stings through and out of the final banked corner. The McLaren runs out of battery way earlier, and Russell is 11km/h quicker when they cross the line.
Given the fine margins, you could easily argue that pole was won and lost there.
“To be so close to pole shows how competitive we are, but of course it’s a little disappointing to end up second when first was clearly within reach,” Norris said.
“The car is performing well, continuing the strong form we showed in Budapest, and that gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the weekend.”
Piastri was also in good form despite looking off the pace in the first practice, with some work between sessions all but zeroing the gap between him and his teammate.
The Australian was the quicker of the two for around half the lap but lost around 0.3s between turns 9 and 10. They’re equal into the last corner, but Norris then gets a better run out of the first corner to end up 0.058s ahead.
“Aa bittersweet result because we made positive progress from [practice] and the pace was right there during sprint qualifying,” Piastri said. “It was so close at the top that with a cleaner lap I might have had pole.
“There are still plenty of positives to take away. Today is all good learning, and we’re improving every weekend, which is crucial because we want to be firmly in the mix.
“The performance is encouraging, and it shows we’re moving in the right direction, but we know that it’s going to be tight with Ferrari and Mercedes, and the difference will come down to the fine margins.
“Our job now is to tidy up those last little details and close the small gaps that still remain. If we execute well, we’ll give ourselves a real shot in the remaining sessions throughout the weekend.”
Piastri’s Dutch Grand Prix defence could still be alive.
Will Piastri close the gap to Lando? | 11:04
FERRARI UPGRADES WORK FOR LECLERC
Ferrari listed some significant revisions to its floor on its list of aerodynamic upgrades this weekend, which the team hoped could make the difference against Mercedes this weekend, a circuit at which the German marque should be a little vulnerable, similar to Budapest.
It opted not to fit the entire new floor during practice given a scarcity of spares — a wise decision in retrospect after Hamilton found himself scrambling over the kerbs and through the gravel, damaging his old floor, during the opening hour-long session.
The team was confident it could bolt the floor straight on for sprint qualifying and find instant gains.
But the results were mixed.
Charles Leclerc was right in the mix — in fact he was 0.15s quicker than Russell into the penultimate corner — until the car’s familiar weakness completely undid his chances.
Despite this being a relatively power insensitive track, Leclerc is totally outgunned by the Mercedes engine exiting onto the front straight to the tune of 16km/h.
There is some decision-making playing a role — Leclerc was quicker over the line on his preparation lap, so perhaps there’s some tactical tweaking to be made to the engine mapping for Saturday qualifying — but the result really only underlined how desperately Ferrari needs its next engine upgrade, due at the next race in Monza.
“Honestly, I think it’s my best qualifying lap this year,” Leclerc enthused, noting the small time gap despite the big power difference.
“That means we are doing something right, also with the feeling. It doesn’t mean it stays there forever, but at least it’s good steps in the right direction.”
Hamilton, on the other hand, had a disastrous session that left him seventh and 0.569s behind Leclerc.
He looked in good form in practice — before the new floor was bolted on — but after being thereabouts in SQ1, he drifted further off the pace, describing a car that gradually fell further out of its sweet spot.
“Unfortunately the car felt different during sprint qualifying, which made the session more challenging, so we’ll carefully review the data overnight to understand the reasons behind this and identify where we need to improve,” he said.
Leclerc’s result shows that the potential is clearly in the car, but Hamilton demonstrated the risk of bringing meaningful updates to a sprint weekend.
At least he still has time to sort the car before qualifying.
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LAWSON, TSUNODA START WELL — BUT THE REAL TEST IS STILL TO COME
Friday was a tough day for Red Bull Racing but a good one for stand-in Red Bull Racing driver Liam Lawson.
Lawson was booted from this seat after just two rounds last year, having been obliterated by Max Verstappen by an average of 0.934s across three qualifying sessions, including one sprint weekend.
The Kiwi has long argued that he was set up to fail in his extremely brief shot at a top team.
Isack Hadjar’s training injury has given him a chance to make good on that argument.
Despite having just one practice session to adjust to the car, he was a respectable 11th and 0.365s slower than Verstappen — only 0.14s further adrift of Hadjar’s season-long average in all qualifying formats.
It probably should have been better too. Lawson had been quicker in SQ1 but then struggled to find as much time as Verstappen in SQ2 as the track continued evolving.
That’s not unexpected — chasing a rapidly evolving track requires a deep understanding of how set-up tweaks affect car behaviour. While it’s not clear what changes Lawson did or didn’t make, his lack of familiarity with the car was always likely to be exposed at the pointy end of qualifying.
“There’s a lot to learn today,” he said. “Honestly, I feel quite good in the car. I was honestly feeling okay through quali. I thought we’d get through, so it’s a shame.
“We’ll obviously try and fix it and put it together for quali, but we definitely had the potential to be right up there today, so it’s frustrating.”
The real shame, though, is that SQ2 was pretty much the pointy end of qualifying for Red Bull Racing.
Verstappen snuck into SQ3 in eighth. He qualified sixth, but he was more than half a second off the pace of the leaders — he was closer to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly behind him than he was to pole position.
Red Bull Racing has a habit of finding performance on Friday night. Combined with his better understanding of the car, grand prix qualifying will give Lawson his chance to make a statement.
Yuki Tsunoda was in an almost identical boat.
The returning Japanese driver — covering for Lawson at Racing Bulls — qualified 12th and 0.36s behind SQ3-bound teammate Arvid Lindbald. He was only 0.009s slower than Lawson.
It was another decent showing, particularly given it was his first qualifying experience with the finicky 2026 engine.
“Everything feels like [I’m a] rookie,” he said. “Everything is a lot different to previous years.”
But he said he was pleasantly surprised to find himself more or less on the pace.
Like Lawson, Saturday qualifying looms as his chance to stretch his legs a little more.
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