Karun Chandhok heard sign in Lewis Hamilton onboard footage that gave George Russell Barcelona pole

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Karun Chandhok thinks George Russell and Lewis Hamilton’s onboard cameras caught exactly where the Mercedes man was able to get pole in Barcelona off the Ferrari ace.

Russell beat Hamilton by a meagre 0.064 seconds to snatch pole position for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix this Saturday. It is the first all-British front row since Lando Norris beat Russell to score pole position for the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, ending a 43-race drought.

Chandhok believes that Hamilton could have beaten his former Mercedes teammate Russell to achieving pole for the Barcelona-Catalunya GP, though, for what would have been his first pole for Ferrari. Hamilton moved to Maranello in 2025, after spending 12 years at Mercedes.

Instead, Russell sealed pole for the Barcelona-Catalunya GP for his third of the season so far, following his P1 performances during qualifying in Australia and Canada. Russell turned pole into the win in Melbourne in round one, but a battery failure forced him to retire in Montreal.

George Russell on pole, with Kimi Antonelli off the front row for the first time in 2026 😮‍💨 Who was the biggest surprise in qualifying in Barcelona?

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Karun Chandhok heard Lewis Hamilton lose pole in Barcelona with a bigger lift at Turn 14

Russell and Hamilton’s onboard cameras from their final flying laps during qualifying for the Barcelona-Catalunya GP showed Chandhok that the former snatched pole in the final sector due to two key moments. Most of all, Hamilton lost his bid for pole in Barcelona’s final turn.

READ MORE: The best moments of George Russell’s career in Formula 1

Hamilton was initially ahead of Russell through the first two sectors at the end of Q3, but he ran deep into Turn 10 and brought his compatriot into play for pole. Yet the 41-year-old was still just ahead approaching the last corner, however a bigger lift at Turn 14 proved decisive.

Chandhok said on Sky Sports F1 (13/06, 16:37): “In those two sectors, it is advantage Lewis Hamilton, but it’s at Turn 10 where it goes wrong for him. Just looking at the line, Lewis has already deviated away from that. He’s turned in at a shallower angle than George Russell.

“George has chosen to go straighter for longer, and then turn in later, and that has worked out well for him. Because watch as Lewis goes in, turning in earlier sets you off on a different trajectory, and he just has to carry this understeer. So, now, he’s having to wait.

“George has managed to rotate the car. Lewis has now gone out wider, he’s on the dirtier part of the track. Watch his hands there, and he gets a big snap, and that has cost him.

“That’s A) cost him time through that corner, [and] B), it’s cost him tyre temperature as well, because he’s just been sliding around a bit more.

“But the Ferrari is still good in that the long right-hander at 12, and you can see that he’s still hanging on a smidge ahead. But I want you to listen in to the throttle for the final corner here. So, they’re flat through 13 and Lewis [has] a bigger lift. A bigger lift off the throttle.

“George was absolutely stellar through the final corner. Just listen to how little he lifts, and even an upshift just on the exit of the corner, driving up to the line. And that was really where George managed to pull some back.

“So, the mistake at Turn 10 for Lewis, and then George’s run through the final corner, that’s all it was. But 64-thousandths of a second! A fantastic lap from both of those drivers.”

In addition to losing time to Russell in their fight for pole at the Barcelona-Catalunya GP into Turn 10 and into Turn 14, as Chandhok claims, Hamilton felt he cost himself pole into Turn 1. The Briton then had to fight back the lap time he believed he lost, which edged him in front.

Hamilton immediately blamed losing pole in Barcelona on him going “a bit deep” at T1, when he and his race engineer Carlo Santi discussed the mere 0.064s margin that separated the seven-time F1 champion from Russell and recording his first pole position as a Ferrari driver.

Second place on the grid at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya still denotes Hamilton’s best Grand Prix qualifying performance since his move from Mercedes to Ferrari last year. Across the 2025 season, his best qualifying in the SF-25 of P3 came at the Mexico City Grand Prix.