Qualifying set to decide Madrid GP as drivers warn overtaking will be 'almost impossible'
12:00, 12 Sep
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Ben Hunt is an award-winning motorsport journalist with over two decades of experience in Formula 1 and international media. As a former editor-in-chief and bestselling author, he delivers in-depth analysis and strategic insight from the highest level of the sport.
Formula 1 drivers reached a clear consensus after Friday practice at the Madring, delivering a damning verdict, saying overtaking an opponent will be almost impossible.
George Russell's practice day reaffirmed his thoughts that the Madring was a "very high risk circuit", though he worried overtaking would be "very tough", while Charles Leclerc called qualifying "for sure going to be the key of the weekend". Williams driver Alex Albon, meanwhile, offered a detailed technical breakdown of why the track is built to frustrate any driver trying to pass.
Albon identifies the design problem
Albon also raised concerns about the difficulty of overtaking into several of the braking zones, which are curved into Turn 5, Turn 8 and Turn 17. He pointed to the angled entries as removing the alternative lines that a pursuing driver would normally use to set up a pass.
I wish they did something a bit different with the braking zones and not having them too much angled. You've got a lot of combined corners, which just thinking of overtaking on Sunday, it feels like it's quite easy to defend. You just put the car in the middle of the track and you're not going to get a car that's going to go past you.- Alex Albon
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Albon added that overtaking at the Madring would be "more of a deployment overtake than a braking overtake", meaning drivers will need to rely on a battery energy advantage rather than outbraking a rival into a corner.
Leclerc puts it to the test
During his high-fuel runs in the final stages of FP2, Leclerc was running in a train of cars, but despite arriving with a sizeable pace advantage, he struggled to complete overtakes.
Qualifying is for sure going to be the key of the weekend. Particularly in FP2 I tried to overtake and even with a large pace delta it was extremely difficult or impossible to overtake.- Charles Leclerc
Russell offered a note of cautious optimism when assessing the prospect of passing on Sunday. "It's going to be very tough, I think," the Mercedes driver said. "If there is the tyre degradation like we saw in FP1, that will make things easier, but yeah, it'll be tough."
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High degradation would force more pit stops and create larger pace differences between cars on different strategies, producing some windows that the pure track layout would otherwise close.
With Mercedes setting the pace on Friday, as GPblog reported in Mercedes set the standard and Ferrari showing competitive single-lap speed, the fight for pole on Saturday carries enormous weight.
For Max Verstappen, who ended Friday sixth and is still working to get the RB22 into its ideal setup window, a poor qualifying result could be especially punishing on a circuit where recovery drives look all but impossible.
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Spanish Grand Prix
Overview
Friday 11.09.26
Practice 1
11:30 AM
Practice 2
03:00 PM
Saturday 12.09.26
Practice 3
10:30 AM
Qualification
02:00 PM
Sunday 13.09.26
Race
01:00 PM
Friday 11.09.26
Practice 1
Fri 11:30 AM
Practice 2
Fri 03:00 PM
Saturday 12.09.26
Practice 3
Sat 10:30 AM
Qualification
Sat 02:00 PM
Sunday 13.09.26
Race
Sun 01:00 PM
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