Jordan's Track Talk

Tag: Barcelona-Catalunya Grand prix

  • Round 7 – Barcelona-Catalunya Qualifying

    George Russell has secured pole position for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix in a close fought Qualifying hour, beating Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli after Charles Leclerc crashed out of the session.

    Bouncing back from a frustrating round in Monaco, the Mercedes driver was consistently one of the quickest throughout Qualifying and his spectacular effort of 1m 14.679s was unbeatable, earning him a third pole position of the season.

    Hamilton made his return to the front row in style with a last-gasp attempt, demoting Antonelli to third place to make the Italian’s lowest Grand Prix Qualifying result so far this season.

    The full top 10 are- Pole: Russell, P2: Hamilton, P3: Antonelli, P4: Norris, P5: Verstappen, P6: Hadjar, P7: Piastri, P8: Lawson, P9: Hulkenberg and P10: Leclerc.

    What a result for Russell, back on pole position, he definitely needed that after the disaster of a weekend last week, now to get the win surely??!! As for his teammate, another great result in third! Antonelli is always lurking around ready to pounce.

    Another great result for Hamilton, for a minute it looked like he was going to get pole position! But still an excellent result for the Ferrari driver. As for his teammate, not a good qualifying session, Leclerc will be looking at staying out of trouble at the start of the race.

    A good result for Norris! Makes up for an awful weekend last weekend, hopefully he can turn it into a decent result and get those points he missed out on last weekend.

    5th and 6th for the Red Bull boys, a semi decent result – Verstappen was looking like he couldn’t really hook the car up when it mattered, will be interesting to see how they get on in the race and what there strategies are going to be.

    Another good result for Liam Lawson in 8th, he will be looking for another points finish.

    Hulkenbergggg in the top 10! We love to see it, hopefully the Audi driver can turn it into a decent points finish for the team.

    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. 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.
    Russell on pole position.

  • F3 – RND 3 – Day 1

    Practice-
    Theophile Nael was fastest in this morning’s Barcelona Free Practice, leading a 1-2-3 for Campos Racing at their home event.

    The Frenchman ended up on top with a 1:28.422 to take top spot ahead of Ugo Ugochukwu and Ernesto Rivera.

    AIX Racing were the first team to send their drivers out for some push laps with Fernando Barrichello setting early pace with a 1:30.655 – over seven tenths quicker than teammate Yevan David.

    Just as they completed their laps, the rest of the field headed out with just under 30 minutes left in the session.

    Bruno del Pino went fastest on a 1:29.425 for Van Amersfoort Racing but there were several setting quicker sectors behind him.

    One of those was Taito Kato took over at the top on a 1:29.103, but it was incredibly close with Freddie Slater just 0.002s behind the ART Grand Prix driver.

    The Campos trio then took over at the top with Nael quickest on a 1:28.422, over two tenths ahead of Ugochukwu, as Rivera went to third, 0.365s off P1.

    The entire field returned to the pitlane after those flying laps, before hitting the track once again with under 14 minutes to go.

    However, there were few improvements as the tyre performance started to drop.

    This left as Campos 1-2-3 with Nael ahead of Ugochukwu and Rivera. Alessandro Giusti was fourth ahead of Kato with Brando Badoer in sixth.

    Qualifying-

    Theophile Nael took his third consecutive Aramco Pole Position award, beating Campos Racing teammate Ugo Ugochukwu to pole in Barcelona.

    Nael’s 1:28.263 was enough to seal him take P1 ahead of Ugochukwu by just 0.039s, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi in third.

    After the first set of laps, it was Ugochukwu that led the way with a 1:28.707 with Taito Kato in second, 0.491s behind the American driver.

    There were three Campos cars in the top five, with Ernesto Rivera and Nael in third and fifth respectively, Brando Badoer sandwiched between the duo in P4.

    The drivers were brought in after those first runs with the teams putting on another set of new Hard tyres.

    They returned to the track with less than 18 minutes to go and Bruno del Pino went quickest by 0.086s with a 1:28.621.

    However several drivers were improving, in particular Nael, who set the three fastest sectors to go P1 with a 1:28.263, bettering Ugochukwu by just 0.039s.

    Just six minutes remained on the clock when the field started to filter back out on to the track.

    Nael did not improve on his final lap leaving himself under pressure from those behind him. However nobody could beat the Campos driver’s time giving him his third consecutive pole position to start the season.