Fight is on for Hamilton as he and Russell reset successfully

"We came into the weekend with an expectation of what the tyres are going to be, and for us, we had twice the amount of deg," Hamilton said.

"It will be interesting to see if that's improved going into tomorrow, but yes, it's going to be at least a two (pit-stop race).

"They're still so quick, the Mercedes, so still have work to do to fully close the gap or at least get ahead, but I'm really hoping that tomorrow we can. It would be nice for us to, for once, be able to hold on to them, but we'll see."

Leclerc crashed on his first run in qualifying, hitting the barriers after losing control on the exit of Turn Four, and said he was "ashamed of not putting everything together on what was a very positive weekend so far".

Hamilton said: "Charles has been quick all weekend. I was braking very late into Turn Four, which had been visible, and I think Charles probably tried to carry a lot of speed into that corner and, unfortunately, it didn't work out for him."

A revival for Russell

Image caption,

George Russell is on pole for the third time this season

At Mercedes, Russell's pole marked a return to form for the Briton after a difficult run of races through Miami, Canada and Monaco.

Russell's 68-point deficit to team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the championship owes a significant amount to bad luck, including an engine failure in Canada when he was leading, and a penalty for failing to serve a pit-lane speeding penalty which he should never have received in Monaco, which dropped him from third to 12th.

But Russell admitted in Monaco that he had had also been struggling for pace compared with Antonelli and a change in approach for Spain - which he described as "a big reset" - has paid dividends.

"Miami was just the first weekend where everything felt pretty challenging, and that's where I can accept, and with my direct group of engineers we can accept, we probably made some wrong decisions in these last three races," he said.

"More than anything, more than this pole position, I'm just glad to feel myself again, feel at one with the car again, as I have done for the last few years.

"Just really happy to be back in my groove over the course of the whole weekend.

"It's been a difficult few races for me. Obviously bad luck. There have been some poor performances in there, but went back to an approach that I knew works for me this weekend.

"And more important than the pole position for me was just in sort of every lap of the whole weekend I was in the top two positions and I felt confident, I felt good. Just felt like my old self again.

"Lewis did a really amazing job and also could have got the pole position as well, but regardless, that was the most important thing for me this weekend."

Italian Antonelli, who also missed the first practice session so reserve driver Frederik Vesti could have a run, said: "Overall this weekend I was just lacking pace, to be fair, on a single lap.

"Just struggling with the feeling of the car, very low grip here, and just been attacking a bit too much corners.

"In the last lap I lost basically everything in the last sector, a couple of big slides and tyre just went away from me. So definitely was not the best performance.

"It's a long run into Turn One. So, important to get a good start and then try to get away cleanly into Turn One.

"And then from that point on, it's going to be trying to play the long game. Tyres are very fragile here and we might see a lot of stops during the race because they don't last very long."