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Lewis Hamilton says ‘the fight is on’ as resurgence continues with best Ferrari qualifying

Published

2 months ago

June 13, 2026

BARCELONA — Lewis Hamilton vowed “the fight is on” against Mercedes after continuing his recent resurgence with his best qualifying result yet for Ferrari.

Hamilton, 41, qualified second for Sunday’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, falling just 0.064 seconds shy of Mercedes’ George Russell for pole position in the final stage of qualifying on Saturday.

Second place marked Hamilton’s best qualifying result for a grand prix since joining Ferrari at the start of 2025, beating his pair of third-place starts from last year’s Mexico City Grand Prix and in Monaco two weeks ago.

To come so close to pole marked another step in Hamilton’s recent upswing in form. The seven-time world champion endured a difficult first year with Ferrari, going an entire season without a podium for the first time in his Formula 1 career.

Ferrari brought a number of upgrades to Barcelona in an effort to close the gap to Mercedes, which has won all six races so far this season.

“It’s helped us,” Hamilton said in the post-qualifying news conference. “The car felt great in qualifying. Obviously, they’re still so quick, the Mercedes (cars). So we still have work to do to fully close the gap or at least get ahead.

“But I’m really hoping that tomorrow… It’ll be nice for once to be able to hold on. But we’ll see.”

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in parc ferme during qualifying in Barcelona. (Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images)

One characteristic of Ferrari’s car that could help Hamilton at the start of Sunday’s race is its tendency to pull away from the line quickly.

The run from the grid to the first corner in Spain is one of the longest on the calendar, but Hamilton did note he is starting on the ‘dirty’ side of the grid where grip is reduced.

He also said it would be “challenging” to fight against Russell and championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who will start third in the sister Mercedes, without Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc to help at the front.

Leclerc crashed out in the final stage of qualifying, leaving him 10th on the grid. The Monegasque driver said he felt “very ashamed” of the error.

Hamilton’s most recent grand prix victory came at the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix when he was still racing for Mercedes, inheriting the win after Russell was disqualified. He holds the record for F1 wins with 105.

Asked by The Athletic if Sunday’s race marked his best chance yet to win for Ferrari, Hamilton said he was “going to give it a go” but thought Mercedes was “still ahead” for outright pace.

“This is the closest we’ve been pace-wise, I think, in qualifying,” Hamilton said. “I’m so, so grateful to the guys back on the team. I’ve seen how focused and how hard everyone’s working. Everyone’s just quiet and goes about their business and is just so passionate.

“I really want them to know how thankful I am, because it felt great out there to put a lap together and see that we’re that close.

“We’re still early in the season. So the fight is on.”

Could Hamilton have scored pole?

After crossing the line to finish his final qualifying lap, Hamilton told Ferrari on the radio he had run a bit deep into the first corner which could have cost him some time.

Hamilton explained in the news conference that he opted to run on slightly used tires for his initial flying lap in Q3 to find a reference, knowing his best chance would come at the very end of the session.

“When I went into Turn 1, I gunned it,” Hamilton said. “I probably went in too deep. I had massive understeer and went quite wide on the exit of (Turn) 1, which meant (Turn) 2 was slower than normal.”

The track temperature neared 50ºC in qualifying on Saturday. (Manaure Quintero / AFP via Getty Images)

He estimated it had cost “half a tenth to a tenth” of a second, but added that he wanted to review the data.

An extra challenge for Hamilton and the rest of the F1 field on Sunday will be the high levels of tire degradation at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The track temperature neared 50ºC (122ºF) in qualifying on Saturday, while the number of long corners make it very demanding on the tires, meaning the race is likely to feature multiple pit stops for the cars at the front.

“The deg was like double what we expected,” Hamilton said. “We’ve come into the weekend with an expectation of what the tire is going to be, and for us, we had twice the level of deg. It’ll be interesting to see if that’s improved going into tomorrow.”

Sports

'He can't miss!' | Hogh running rampant with first-half hat-trick

Published

3 minutes ago

August 10, 2026

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Hogh runs rampant with first-half hat-trick for Celtic.

Sports

PIF London Championship: Anna Huang secures victory after late Charley Hull double-bogey | Golf News

Published

9 minutes ago

August 10, 2026

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Charley Hull surrendered the lead with a double-bogey on the 17th as Anna Huang stormed to a two-shot victory at the PIF London Championship at Centurion Club.

Hull set up her final-round charge with a course-record 62 in the second round and a six-under 67 in the third, and looked on course to claim a sixth Ladies European Tour title after making five birdies to lead by one shot with two holes remaining.

The 30-year-old’s final round included six birdies, but she dropped two shots by four-putting on the penultimate hole and although she birdied the 18th, she had to settle for a four-under 69 as Huang eagled the last to finish two shots ahead on 22-under.

Hull hit birdies at the sixth, ninth, 13th, 15th and 16th without dropping a shot before her struggles on the 17th green.

Huang made three birdies and two bogeys in her final-round 70 and sank an eagle-putt on the 18th to secure victory.

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Sports

Arsenal 2-3 Borussia Dortmund: Mikel Arteta’s side defend poorly but Christos Tzolis shines as Gunners lose Emirates Cup | Football News

Published

16 minutes ago

August 10, 2026

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Arsenal produced more comical defending in pre-season as Borussia Dortmund won 3-2 in north London to win the Emirates Cup.

After Mikel Arteta said Arsenal’s defending in Wednesday’s defeat to Real Betis was “below the standard”, the Gunners found themselves in trouble again as they were 2-0 down at the break thanks to goals from Samuele Inacio and 18-year-old wonderkid Konstantinos Karetsas.

Arsenal had plenty of chances throughout – with the wasteful Viktor Gyokeres hitting the bar in the first half – and while Ethan Nwaneri pulled one back after good work from Christos Tzolis, a calamitous corner allowed Joane Gadou to make it 3-1.

Tzolis then capped off a promising performance by winning a penalty which Gyokeres converted. But with seven days to go until their Community Shield game with Man City in Cardiff, Arteta has some holes to fix.

Arsenal welcomed new signing Bruno Guimaraes onto the Emirates pitch before kick-off – he is needed sooner rather than later.

The key moments from the Emirates Stadium…

7: GOAL! Inacio gives Dortmund the lead after being played through in the box by Lukas Nmecha.

15: NO PENALTY! Odegaard breaks through on goal and is brought down. Referee Chris Kavanagh points to the spot then changes his mind by giving a free-kick on the edge of the box, which Gyokeres fires over.

26: OFF THE BAR! Gyokeres strikes the bar after Odegaard’s pass freed Dowman on the right wing.

29: GOAL! Karetsas doubles Dortmund’s lead after Riccardo Calafiori gave the ball away on the halfway line, which sparked a solo run.

43: TWO CHANCES! Tzolis produces two glorious free-kicks in the space of four minutes, but Gabriel nods the first one over and Havertz heads straight at the goalkeeper.

55: GOAL! Nwaneri sweeps home to pull one back after good work from Tzolis, who provided the assist down the left.

59: GOAL! Comical Arsenal defending at a corner sees Gadou score a third for Dortmund, after Illan Meslier saved when Calafiori could not clear his lines.

69: GOAL! Gyokeres pulls one back from the penalty spot after livewire Tzolis is fouled by Jobe Bellingham.

90+4: GOAL DISALLOWED! Martinelli thinks he has equalised but is caught offside from a short corner.

Arteta: We conceded poor goals

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta:

“We lost the game, obviously not happy about it. Things obviously have to be improved. Certain players need to get more minutes and rhythm, which is going to be really helpful.

“It has to hurt, whether it is a friendly match, a test or whatever you want to call it. But yeah, we know where we are. We know that we are missing still a lot of players and some players that haven’t had enough training. And yeah, sometimes it [losing] is good.

“We conceded some poor goals the other day, some poor goals today, in the way we competed, especially. But that’s a very collective responsibility. So, we need to improve with the players that we have. And we want to improve, for sure we will.”

Analysis: Is Arsenal’s defending a concern?

Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz at the Emirates Stadium:

Since December 2023, Arsenal had conceded three goals in a match only once.

That was the 3-2 loss to Manchester United in January of this year, which ended a 121-match run without letting in three goals.

Now they have conceded three in back-to-back pre-season friendlies. The last time they conceded three goals in consecutive games came in April 2023, when they drew 3-3 to Southampton and then lost 4-1 in a title decider with Man City.

Yes, this is pre-season. Yes, there are still eight first-team players to come back and shore up the midfield, including Declan Rice and new signing Bruno Guimaraes.

But there are concerning habits at the moment. Arsenal looked pretty open defensively while playing their first-choice back four that they have available.

William Saliba’s injury looks pretty costly right now, while Jurrien Timber is still weeks away from returning from his long-term groin issue.

As a result of that, the Arsenal defence that normally give away so little look so open. From the six goals they conceded against Real Betis and Borussia Dortmund, three of them came from shots outside the box, two of them came from defensive corners.

So with all the talk about whether Arsenal need a new left winger, should defensive cover for Saliba be higher on the shortlist?

The club have shown interest in Ezri Konsa and an extraordinary move for Spurs captain Cristian Romero, which hints Arteta believes some defensive reinforcements are required too.

It’s no need to panic for Arsenal. On Monday, Arteta will work with a full Gunners squad for the first time when all the World Cup winners and England players return.

There were also some positives against Dortmund with Christos Tzolis looking sharp, Martin Odegaard creating lots of open play chances – while Max Dowman and Ethan Nwaneri both stood up once again.

But time is ticking towards that Community Shield with Manchester City, which will set the tone for the campaign ahead.

Arsenal’s pre-season so far…

July 25: Arsenal 3-0 MK Dons – Arsenal training ground
August 1: Girona 1-4 Arsenal – Girona
August 5: Arsenal 1-3 Real Betis – Dublin
August 9: Arsenal 2-3 Borussia Dortmund
August 12: Arsenal vs Como – Emirates Stadium, 7.30pm
August 16: Community Shield – Arsenal vs Man City, Cardiff, 3pm