BELGIAN GP – Lando Norris beats Oscar Piastri to Grand Prix pole by eight and a half hundredths
Lando Norris has beaten his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by eight and a half hundredths to take pole for the Belgian Grand Prix. The English-Belgian driver set a 40.562 to take his fourth pole of the season despite neither managing to improve on their final runs after both made mistakes on their final runs, as Norris showed gains from sprint qualifying on Friday.
Throughout the weekend, McLaren has looked to make gains after the sprint race and improve on his final attempt, as he hung on as his teammate failed to improve. Norris looking to have learned from mistakes in sprint qualifying to allow him to secure pole for his third home race of their season as he looks to do three in a row.
Even Norris himself could not go faster in his last run and if the rain that’s forecast for Sunday arrives, track position will be key on the opening lap and pole position will be an advantage, unlike the Sprint where Verstappen blasted past Piastri on the Kemmel Straight.
The Dutchman failed to improve after he immediately placed himself on the backfoot at the start of the lap when he went a little wide at La Source, just keeping it just within track limits. The mistake saw him lose just three thousandths of a second, despite clawing back time to the Ferrari, which was despite making setup changes going into qualifying to gain more downforce.
Norris has appeared to be on the backfoot compared to Piastri all weekend, but an excellent first attempt in Q3 saw him secure his fourth pole of the season, creating the perfect opportunity to close his teammates championship lead.
Norris said: “I was confident after yesterday – 0.3secs is just slipstream and not being first out of the pit lane. It was a decent lap, so I’m happy. Most likely some rain and drizzle. Could be in for a chaotic race. Going off the front and hopefully can take advantage of that and go from there.”
Piastri said: “A bit disappointing. The second lap was coming together really well but just made a little mistake into Fourteen (Stavelot) and lost a lot of time. The car was really good but it’s fine margins out there. We’re a good team-mate pairing, we learn a lot from each other. Felt like I did OK but didn’t quite execute when it matters.”
Verstappen said, “I was actually hoping it would help the driving feeling, just maybe a bit draggy, but it didn’t do that. It was just a bit more draggy and not the right balance. So it’s a bit weird and something we need to look into because it felt like that whole qualifying I couldn’t really push and around here at Spa you need the be committed on entry if you want the car to rotate and I couldn’t do that.”
Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari third, but he was unable really to challenge the McLarens for pole, he was a quarter of a second off Piastri as he pushed Verstappen to fourth. Alex Albon put his Williams fifth; he was nearly three tenths off his former teammate and six hundredths faster than George Russell.
Russell, last year’s race winner before being disqualified for a technical infringement, failed to better his time from Q2 with him three hundredths slower. Yuki Tsunoda was a quarter of a tenth behind Russell but four tenths off Verstappen, his best qualifying since being promoted to the senior team in early April.
The Japanese driver was a quarter of a tenth faster than the sister team Racing Bulls, with Isack Hadjar just under two hundredths ahead of his teammate Liam Lawson. While Gabriel Bortoleto put in a brilliant effort to put his Sauber into Q3 at the expense of Ollie Bearman. The Brazilian making it through to Q3 for the first time in Grand Prix qualifying session for the first time in his career, repeating the feat he managed in sprint qualifying the day before.
The Haas driver had a similar moment to Verstappen, costing him just under two hundredths and knocking him out. Bearman was then beaten by his teammate Esteban Ocon after the time was deleted, the Frenchman going just over nine hundredths faster. The Londoner unable to repeat what he did on Friday by getting into Q3, as he made a similar error as Verstappen would make in Q3, starting his last lap.
Pierre Gasly put his Alpine thirteenth the Frenchman going over eight hundredths ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, with Carlos Sainz slowest in Q3 as the Williams driver was half a tenth behind the Sauber.
Lewis Hamilton was fastest of those knocked out in Q1; the seven-time champion being knocked out in the first part of qualifying as a Ferrari driver. The six-time pole sitter at Spa ran a little bit too wide at the top of Raidillon on a lap which had put him seventh at his final run. His time within track limits put him nearly a tenth faster than Franco Colapinto.
A disappointed Hamilton said to go out in Q1 was “not acceptable” but he would try to “have fun” in the race.
Kimi Antonelli was eighteenth as the Mercedes driver was ahead of both Aston Martin’s, Fernando Alonso going a tenth and a quarter ahead of Lance Stroll.
Related
- Belgian GP – Sprint Results
- BELGIAN GP – Max Verstappen wins Spa sprint by under a second from Oscar Piastri
- Belgian GP – Sprint Qualifying Results
- BELGIAN GP – Oscar Piastri beats Max Verstappen to sprint pole by just under half a second
- Welcome to the Belgian Grand Prix
- PRIXVIEW – Belgian Grand Prix