For more than three decades, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has been the home of Formula 1 in Spain, hosting multiple champion teams and drivers. Fernando Alonso unleashed passion and madness in 2007, and the race seems to have sparked great interest again 15 years later, with packed stands looking to see the Spanish drivers deliver a good level. Of course, they will have to row a lot after a Saturday that was not very profitable for them in terms of qualifying.
The leader of the World Championship, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc, will start from pole position at the wheel of his Ferrari, accompanied on the front row by his arch-rival Max Verstappen. Both have good arguments and machines to win the event, although Ferrari seems to have adapted better to the demands of Montmeló. As proof of this, the third position on the grid of Carlos Sainz, whose four tenths yesterday were more than necessary, and who will seek the local momentum to catapult him to his long-awaited first victory in Formula 1.
Sainz will share the second row with a George Russell who leads the mini-resurrection of Mercedes, a team that seems to have begun to come back on its feet at this track after its difficult start to the season. The Briton qualified ahead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who has finished behind him in recent races, and who was unable to overcome Sergio Pérez, who closes the top 5 in the second Red Bull.
The ideal would have been for Fernando Alonso to have been behind this group, either on the fourth row or closing the top 10 at the wheel of his Alpine, but he wanted the qualifying reality and a very poor forecast of the available time by his team that the Spanish driver could only be 17th in Q1. With nothing to lose, Alonso has replaced his power unit and will start last, waiting for a possible crazy race that does not usually happen too often in Montmeló, and that certainly will not be favored by a time that only brings a sun of justice.