Verstappen quickest at Spa but Sainz inherits pole after engine penalties effect slew of top drivers; mixed up grid should lead to wild Belgian GP
Formula 1 returns from the long summer break with one of the oldest and most prestigious events on the calendar, the Belgian Grand Prix from fabled Spa-Francorchamps. And Saturday Qualifying for tomorrow’s race saw Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen miss not a beat coming back from his holiday, as the Dutchman easily set the fastest time on the series’ longest circuit. However, Verstappen will not be starting from pole because even though he gapped the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz by over six-tenths he and the team decided to make engine changes and so Max will be pushed towards the back despite setting the fastest lap. He wasn’t the only competitor to take the pain of power unit component changes this weekend either. Not only his main rival, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, bit that particular bullet, but Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, McLaren’s Lando Norris, Haas’s Mick Schumacher and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas also followed suit. While one might need a degree from MIT to figure out all these penalty permutations, it looks like the key takeaway is that Verstappen will start P15 and Leclerc P16 tomorrow. Along with all the other out-of-position cars it could make for a chaotic run into Eau Rouge on the opening lap when Verstappen and Leclerc try to fight their way through slower traffic in an effort to get to their respective teammates at the front, the pole-sitting Sainz and the P2 Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
The biggest beneficiaries of all those penalties are Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who gets promoted to P3 on the grid, and the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who look to be starting in P4 and P5 despite not even being the third fastest team in quali.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Belgian Grand Prix:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:44.581 | 1:44.723 | 1:43.665 | |
| 2 | 1:45.050 | 1:45.418 | 1:44.297 | |
| 3 | 1:45.377 | 1:44.794 | 1:44.462 | |
| 4 | 1:45.572 | 1:44.551 | 1:44.553 | |
| 5 | 1:46.039 | 1:45.475 | 1:45.180 | |
| 6 | 1:46.075 | 1:45.552 | 1:45.368 | |
| 7 | 1:45.736 | 1:45.420 | 1:45.503 | |
| 8 | 1:45.650 | 1:45.461 | 1:45.776 | |
| 9 | 1:45.672 | 1:45.675 | 1:45.837 | |
| 10 | 1:45.745 | 1:45.603 | 1:46.178 |
The provisional grid after all the penalties looks like this, however:
PROVISIONAL STARTING GRID BELGIAN GP
| Nr. | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Sainz | Ferrari |
| 2. | Perez | Red Bull |
| 3. | Alonso | Alpine |
| 4. | Hamilton | Mercedes |
| 5. | Russell | Mercedes |
| 6. | Albon | Williams |
| 7. | Ricciardo | McLaren |
| 8. | Gasly | AlphaTauri |
| 9. | Stroll | Aston Martin |
| 10. | Vettel | Aston Martin |
| 11. | Latifi | Williams |
| 12. | Magnussen | Haas |
| 13. | Tsunoda | AlphaTauri |
| 14. | Bottas* | Alfa Romeo |
| 15. | Verstappen* | Red Bull |
| 16. | Leclerc* | Ferrari |
| 17. | Ocon* | Alpine |
| 18. | Norris* | McLaren |
| 19. | Zhou* | Alfa Romeo |
| 20. | Schumacher* | Haas |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Even without the predictably unpredictable weather in the Ardennes, it could be one heck of a chaotic race with so many cars ostensibly out of position and the fast ones determined to fight their way to the front. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!