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.