Kimi Antonelli has beaten Max Verstappen by just over three tenths to take pole for the Belgian Grand Prix. The championship leader continued his strong weekend, setting a 44.361 to go ahead of the Red Bull. The two have topped all three practice sessions, but when it came to the final runs, Verstappen didn’t have enough to secure pole at one of his home Grands Prix.
Antonelli has looked the man to beat since topping Friday practice, and he delivered on his potential with his sixth pole position in ten races so far this year. But had to respond to Norris, who had gone fastest following a brief pause in Q3 to clean up gravel. The world champion felt he got everything out of his car.
He dedicated the pole to his father Marco, who celebrates his sixty-first birthday today. He has a huge opportunity to rebuild some of the advantage he has lost over teammate George Russell due to retirements from two of the last four Grands Prix.
On his final attempt, Antonelli then dug out three tenths over Verstappen’s lap to set a 44.361, which none of the remaining drivers was able to get close to across their final laps. Red Bull had tried to use Verstappen teammate Isack Hadjar to give the four-time champion a tow, but even that wasn’t enough to hang on to take his first pole of the season.
They did not quite get it right on the first run but perfected it for the second run as Verstappen got a huge increase in speed behind his teammate to get onto the front row – something he thought was not possible without the slipstream.
Verstappen out-qualified his fellow half-Belgian Lando Norris by a tenth and a quarter despite the world champion bailing out of his last attempt. Hadjar has, in effect, a thirty-place grid penalty, which automatically converts to starting last, for taking a completely new power unit.
But Norris will start his second home Grand Prix from thirteenth after McLaren elected to introduce new components into his engine pool, exceeding his parts allowance for the season, after he did not start in Shanghai. Norris was nearly seven hundredths faster than George Russell.
The English-Belgian driver delivered a spectacular lap on the first runs in Q3 to pip Antonelli by nearly four-hundredths but felt he got everything out of his car. But he pushed too hard going wide at the Fagnes Chicane, but avoided a collision with the wall like Lewis Hamilton in final practice and Pierre Gasly in FP2.
Nevertheless, he was on provisional pole, and a red flag for gravel on the track only built the tension ahead of the last runs.
Antonelli said, “It was not a very straightforward session, the track changed a lot. We are able to improve lap by lap and to bring home pole which was nice but of course tomorrow is another day, I have Max starting next to me so it is going to be important to get a good start and then try to be ahead into Turn Five.”
Verstappen added, “It was definitely helping me, otherwise, I would not be standing here. Otherwise, I think I would be like P6, or something. Tomorrow, I’ll be looking in my mirrors for the people around me but at least today we had a really good result. I think the car has been decent all weekend, of course not on the level of Kimi, but we’re happy of course, to be on the front row with how we executed this as a team.”
Norris qualified third but will start the race in thirteenth because of a ten-place grid penalty: “We’ve not really changed anything, we are just a bit quicker on this track. It is nice to be standing here; it is not nice knowing I have to go ten places back tomorrow. Unfortunately, it is not where we will be starting tomorrow because it would be nice to have a little fight with these guys, but we made the most of it.”
Russell has appeared to struggle all weekend; he has been losing time on the straights, which may be down to his driving style in the corners, and will hope the long flat-out run after the first corner will give him a chance to perhaps challenge Antonelli and Verstappen for the lead on what should be a thrilling first lap.
Ferrari, who have appeared to be on the up having won the two races that Antonelli retired or dropped out the point appeared to struggle, despite Spa being a circuit which shares similar characteristics to Barcelona and Silverstone. Charles Leclerc was seven hundredths behind Russell as he edged out his teammate Lewis Hamilton by nearly a quarter of a hundredth.
Hamilton’s heavy crash in final practice, but Ferrari was able to change his suspension, floor and gearbox in time for qualifying with no impact on the car’s performance.
Oscar Piastri was slowest of the top four teams who set a lap in Q3; the second McLaren was two hundredths behind Hamilton, as he went over a tenth ahead of Arvid Lindblad. The Racing Bulls driver was nearly half a second faster than Gabriel Bortoletto, as he had his best qualifying of the season. Hadjar was classified tenth, having not set a time in Q3.
Liam Lawson was eleventh, the New Zealander four hundredths behind the Audi at the end of Q2, meaning he missed out on the final part of qualifying. However, he didn’t have the same spec car as Lindblad, who got the upgrade after Racing Bulls decided to use Silverstone results to determine which driver got the upgrades.
Lawson was just over two tenths ahead of the Alpine duo, Pierre Gasly going six hundredths faster than Franco Colapinto. The Argentine did improve on this final attempt to go ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, whose Audi stopped on track while returning to the pits because of a hydraulic leak, causing a delay to Q3.
Carlos Sainz was two thousandths faster than Ollie Bearman at the bottom of the Q2 knockout, allowing the Haas driver to split the Williams. Alex Albon missed out on getting through by seven thousandths behind Bearman at that stage after Colapinto improved on his final attempt, getting himself out of the drop zone.
Albon was nearly three-quarters of a tenth faster than Esteban Ocon, the second Haas struggling to find a slipstream in Q1 meaning he dropped out in the first part of qualifying.
At the back, Cadillac once again outqualified Aston Martin, providing further evidence that F1’s newest team has overtaken the struggling Honda-powered team. Valtteri Bottas a tenth and a half ahead of Sergio Perez, with Fernando Alonso a tenth and three-quarters ahead of teammate Lance Stroll.
Related
- BELGIAN GP – Kimi Antonelli under a tenth and a half ahead of Lando Norris in third practice
- BELGIAN GP – Kimi Antonelli two tenths faster than Lando Norris in second practice
- BELGIAN GP – Max Verstappen almost a tenth and a half ahead of the Ferrari in first practice
- Analysis – State of the championship race
- PRIXVIEW – Belgian Grand Prix
