Hamilton highlights key Leclerc factor he is missing in battle against Mercedes

Only 0.064 seconds separated George Russell and Hamilton on Saturday afternoon at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in qualifying. Pole position went to the Mercedes driver, while his former teammate will complete the front row.

Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc could not challenge for pole position. The Monegasque driver crashed on his first flying lap in Q3, and caused a red flag. As a result, he will start from P10.

Looking ahead to Sunday, Hamilton said: "It definitely will be challenging without my teammate within the group, but it’s been done before. So, I think really it’s a long way down to Turn 1. For one, I’m on the dirty side, which is not the greatest. But yes, these guys I think were really quick on the long runs, as they have been all year. So I have no idea whether I’ll be able to keep up. We’ll find out tomorrow."

Strategies could also play a key role in Sunday's Grand Prix, as there are very warm conditions in Barcelona. Tyre manufacturer Pirelli predicts at least a two-stop race for today.

About strategies, Russell said: "I think closer to a three than a one. I don’t think a one is going to be possible at all. It’s not clear what the best tyre is. It’s quite interesting, on a track surface like this, all three tyre compounds look quite similar. That was the case last year. Everybody was running the C3s and the twos last year, and obviously with the C4 this year, it still looks not a bad race tyre. So, there’ll be a lot of variation, but I don’t think a different tyre will make that much of a difference."

Hamilton continued: "I think the tyre wear, did you say it was double? The deg was like double than what we expected. So maybe not for the…"

Russell responded with explaining that he said it was a one-stop, to which Hamilton then countered, "Yeah, a half-stop! We came into the weekend with an expectation of whether what the tyres are going to be, and for us, we had twice the amount of deg. It will be interesting to see if that’s improved going into tomorrow, but yes, it’s going to be at least a two."

Entering the seventh round of the season, Hamilton and Russell are also close in the drivers' standings. Currently, only two points separate the two, as they trail Kimi Antonelli by 66 and 68 points respectively.