BELGIAN GP – Max Verstappen fastest in qualifying, with Charles Leclerc beating Sergio Perez by a hundredth to take pole
Max Verstappen was fastest in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix going nearly six tenths faster than pole sitter Charles Leclerc. Though Verstappen put in another strong qualifying where he topped all three sessions, he will start eleventh after taking a ten-place grid penalty for a power unit change.
The Dutchman dominated qualifying once again ahead of one of his home Grands Prix with his teammate Sergio Prez third a much-needed boost for him as speculation continues about his future. Verstappen was under pressure this weekend as he hasn’t won a race since Barcelona with Mercedes and McLaren winning all the races in July so far.
He has won the three races at Spa, but despite the wet conditions in the Arden Forest the session past without major incident and the weather never deteriorated to the point that the session was at risk of being stopped – the amount of spray was limited and drivers were always able to see where they were going.
Verstappen said, “It was a nice qualifying. Luckily the weather was okay. It was just raining a little bit and at least we could do a decent qualifying. Very happy. The car was working quite well in the wet. I could just do my laps and try to do clean lap times in the wet, which is always quite tricky.”
Leclerc put his Ferrari in between the two Red Bulls as the conditions improved at the end of Q3 to go a hundredth faster than Perez right at the end of the final part of the session. But the Mexican only just scraped into the final part of qualifying by three-thousandths of a second.
Since that home win in Monaco for Leclerc, Ferrari have slipped back behind McLaren and Ferrari, they went into Spa expecting their car. He said “I definitely did not expect that this weekend, but with the tricky conditions we could do something above our expectations. It is a good day for the team and now we need to focus on tomorrow and see what will happen when the rain is gone.”
Perez who is under pressure to retain his Red Bull seat, delivered when it mattered and will fancy his chances of beating Leclerc, whose race pace is expected to be less competitive than Red Bull in the dry conditions.
The Monacan took his first pole since his home Grand Prix two months ago. Verstappen had excelled on Saturday in the wet topping both third practice and qualifying by roughly the same margin. Verstappen will be keen to bounce back to victory but that looks more difficult as he hasn’t been able to carve his way through as easily this season as in the last two years.
Ferrari hadn’t expected to fight for pole but got the timing right to split the Red Bull and take pole by just over a hundredth of a second. However, pole is not always the best place to start in Spa because of the risk of being slipstreamed on the long run from the first corner at La Source, through the fast Eau Rouge swerves and up on the long Kemmel straight.
Lewis Hamilton was fourth the seven-time champion putting his Mercedes seven hundredths behind Perez as he failed to improve on his final attempt in Q3. That pit him ahead of the two McLaren’s as Lando Norris improved on his final attempt going just under half a tenth faster than his teammate Oscar Piastri.
Norris, however, failed to take advantage of his fellow half-Belgian and championship rival Verstappen’s penalty. The McLaren driver fifth missing out on pole by nine-tenths but will look to move forwards once again as the team has won two of the last three races. George Russell put his Mercedes seventh, he was a tenth and a half off Norris and was nearly three-tenths faster than Carlos Sainz.
Alex Albon just missed out on Q3 by three thousandths as he put his Williams eleventh. As conditions changed and the track ramped up he was pushed out by Perez, team principal James Vowles telling Albon “it was a really good lap” but then added the team is “not quite there with car pace”.
Pierre Gasly put his Alpine twelfth going half a tenth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian perhaps another to miss out on Q3 the car looked to have the pace. But the timing of his final attempt coupled with a drying track and tumbling lap times at the end of Q2 saw him miss out as well on a chance of a place in the final part of qualifying.
Valtteri Bottas was fourteenth as he put his Sauber nearly a second faster than Lance Stroll. Stroll managed to take part in qualifying despite a crash in FP3 in the wet.
Nico Hulkenberg was fastest of those who were knocked out in Q1, he was just over a second behind Stroll as he went just under two tenths faster than Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen. Yuki Tsunoda went into qualifying knowing he would start last because of a engine change, but he put his RB eighteenth.
Logan Sargeant was nineteenth half a second ahead of Guanyu Zhou, as they completed the field.
Related
- BELGIAN GP – Max Verstappen fastest by a second and a half in wash-out third practice
- BELGIAN GP – Lando Norris leads a McLaren one-two going two-tenths faster than Oscar Piastri in second practice
- BELGIAN GP – Max Verstappen fastest by half a second in FP1 ahead of Oscar Piastri