Norris bests Piastri for pole at Spa; Leclerc out-duels Verstappen for P3
Lando Norris kept his momentum going even after the long break from his emotional win at the last race in England three weeks ago, taking pole in Saturday qualifying ahead of his McLaren teammate at the fabled Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. Norris pipped Piastri, who had the pole for the earlier Sprint race, by a mere 0.085 seconds, as McLaren locked out the front row. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc surprised Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as grip conditions worsened amidst increasing heat here in the Ardennes, taking P3 from the flying Dutchman, who has earlier stormed to the win in the Sprint. However, with rain predicted for tomorrow’s Grand Prix after nothing but dry weather to begin the race weekend, we could be in for an unpredictable contest where qualifying position might mean less than meets the eye.
After the top four, Williams’ Alexander Albon put in an astonishing final flying lap to vault himself up to P5, relegating Mercedes’ George Russell to P6 in the process. The second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda qualified relatively well in P7 in his first race under new team boss and his former chief at Racing Bulls, Laurent Mikes. Mikies replaced Christian Horner at the big team after Christian Horner’s shock sacking on July 9th. Speaking of Racing Bulls, the excellent young duo of Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson continued to impress by qualifying in P8 and P9 respectively, while Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto was able to get into Q3 and will start form tenth on the grid.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Belgian GP:
|
POS. |
NO. |
DRIVER |
TEAM |
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
4 |
Lando Norris |
McLaren |
1:41.010 |
1:40.715 |
1:40.562 |
20 |
|
2 |
81 |
Oscar Piastri |
McLaren |
1:41.201 |
1:40.626 |
1:40.647 |
21 |
|
3 |
16 |
Charles Leclerc |
Ferrari |
1:41.635 |
1:41.084 |
1:40.900 |
18 |
|
4 |
1 |
Max Verstappen |
Red Bull Racing |
1:41.334 |
1:40.951 |
1:40.903 |
15 |
|
5 |
23 |
Alexander Albon |
Williams |
1:41.772 |
1:41.505 |
1:41.201 |
20 |
|
6 |
63 |
George Russell |
Mercedes |
1:41.784 |
1:41.254 |
1:41.260 |
18 |
|
7 |
22 |
Yuki Tsunoda |
Red Bull Racing |
1:41.840 |
1:41.245 |
1:41.284 |
17 |
|
8 |
6 |
Isack Hadjar |
Racing Bulls |
1:41.572 |
1:41.281 |
1:41.310 |
19 |
|
9 |
30 |
Liam Lawson |
Racing Bulls |
1:41.748 |
1:41.297 |
1:41.328 |
20 |
|
10 |
5 |
Gabriel Bortoleto |
Kick Sauber |
1:41.908 |
1:41.336 |
1:42.387 |
18 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live at 9AM Eastern on ESPN here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!