Warning from Team Principal Toto Wolff: "You can only lose the race there"

As in the season opener at Albert Park in Melbourne and in GP qualifying in Canada, George Russell also beat off the competition in the final practice session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to take pole. His Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who leads the championship by 66 points from Ferrari star Lewis Hamilton, had to settle for third place.

Team boss Toto Wolff praised him after the race: "George was the fastest driver all weekend. If you had asked me before qualifying for a favourite for pole position, I would have chosen him. He's been in top form all weekend, has regrouped after his recent bad luck, is highly focussed and has put in an impressive performance so far. He needs to continue that in the race if he wants to fight for victory. He's in good form this weekend and reminds everyone how good he is."

Hope for Kimi Antonelli

The Viennese said of championship leader Antonelli: "As for Kimi, the break in first practice cost him some time on the track, but third place is still a solid result. It's easy to forget that he's only in his second year in Formula 1 and has an incredibly fast team-mate at his side. His race pace in second practice was competitive. So I'm sure he's looking forward to the upcoming race."

Looking ahead to the upcoming Grand Prix, Wolff added: "It will be a long race in which we expect a lot of tyre degradation. We want to be first into the first corner, but we know that you can't win the race there, you can only lose it. We have to take good care of the tyres, find a good pace and wait and see what the situation looks like before the final phase."

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