BELGIAN GP – Max Verstappen beats Carlos Sainz to top qualifying, and starts fifteenth ahead of rival Charles Leclerc

Testing & Race Reports
Jack
27-08-2022

Max Verstappen was fastest in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix but will start sixteenth thanks to grid penalties, meaning Carlos Sainz will start from pole after going nearly a tenth and a half quicker than Sergio Perez. The Dutchman is one of five drivers who will start from fifteenth downwards for new power units.

Verstappen set his fastest lap at the end of qualifying to beat his former teammate to top the times and start crucially ahead of his championship rival Charles Leclerc who was fourth but also incurs penalties for a power unit change. The two title rivals will need to fight their way into the points from the back, no driver will start from the position they qualified thanks to the penalties given.

The Dutchman, who heads Leclerc by eighty points in the championship with nine races to go, has been in imperious form all weekend and his pace suggests he could even win the race from three-quarters back on the grid on Sunday.

Verstappen said: “It was amazing qualifying but the whole weekend we’ve been on it. The car has been working well and it all came together in qualifying. Of course, I had to be careful with the tyres I was using and starting at the back.”

Perez spilt the two Ferrari’s going nine hundredths ahead of the second Ferrari of Leclerc, with the team using the Monacan to give his teammate a tow and secure the second pole of his career after going over a tenth and a half ahead of Perez. Perez’s former teammate Esteban Ocon was fifth after going nearly two-tenths ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso, who will start behind Leclerc seventeenth. Alonso moving to third.

The two title rivals Verstappen and Leclerc will still be starting alongside each other on row eight of the grid, both drivers looking to work their way into the points. Verstappen currently leading the championship by eighty points with Leclerc well aware he needs to be beating the Red Bull driver regularly to keep his championship alive.

Ferrari as well facing questions following yet another questionable decision and/or mistake to send Leclerc out on his first run in Q3 on used softs, which they accepted.

Mercedes are one team, going into the race, as things stand, without grid penalties, Lewis Hamilton seventh ahead of teammate George Russell by three and a half tenths. That means they will start from fifth and sixth on the grid, they will have the advantage being the only teammates to start alongside each other for the race.

The Englishmen looking to be lacking pace on what could be their best opportunity for victory this season, Mercedes around a second and eight-tenths behind Verstappen.

Following qualifying and Mercedes on paper worst Q3 of the season, with Hamilton almost two seconds off, the seven time champion  said the “sole focus” for the rest of the season had to be on learning the lessons from the 2022 car and making sure next year’s car “is not like this one”.

“All you can do now is laugh about it,” he said, while acknowledging that his starting position, with only Sainz, Perez and Alonso ahead of him meant a podium was a real possibility.

But Hamilton says a podium remains possible, that’s thanks to Mercedes being the team who have a better car in race trim and the team maximising results in recent races. However, he and Russell both said they were aware that Verstappen and Leclerc would probably come back into the fight for the podium before the end of the race.

Alex Albon qualified ninth but starts fifth, and Lando Norris tenth. the four British born drivers all lining up together in qualifying for the first time. The British-born Thai said he and the team had got “everything right” in qualifying, although he acknowledged that the decision to go out for a run on his own in the final part of qualifying rather than try to get a tow from another car was probably not the best.

However, Norris will start eighteenth having been the slowest of the three drivers in Q3 with back-of-the-grid place penalties. He opted against a final run knowing he would start seventeenth.

Norris made it through to Q3 after going faster than his outgoing teammate Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian being knocked out by Albon in the closing moments of6 Q2. However Ricciardo starts eighth, McLaren attempted to use the tow to try and get him higher up the grid, but he could not improve staying eleventh fastest.

Pierre Gasly was six hundreds slower than Ricciardo putting his AlphaTauri twelfth to start the race from eight ahead of the two Aston Martins. Guanyu Zhou was thirteenth going over half a second  faster than Lance Stroll, however the Chinese driver drops to nineteenth on the grid.

Mick Schumacher was slowest of the cars knocked out in Q2 and tarts last thanks to being the slowest of the cars with back of the grid penalties.

Aston Martin could be the benefactor in this race as Stroll and teammate Sebastian Vettel start in the points, Vettel was fastest of the cars knocked out in Q1 nearly six tenths ahead of Nicolas Latifi. Vettel being knocked out by his protégé Schumacher as the Haas driver made a late improvement.

Yuki Tsunoda was nineteenth ahead of Valtteri Bottas, but the Finn will move to fourteenth with his grid penalty being five places.

Related

Tags:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,