The Belgian GP saw Max Verstappen set the fastest time in a rainy qualifying session; nevertheless, because of the Red Bull driver’s grid penalty, Charles Leclerc will start the race from pole position.
Due to a 10-grid place penalty for exceeding the engine restriction for a season, Verstappen will start from 11th place, with Sergio Perez and Leclerc in the lead.
For the second time this year, Leclerc has taken the lead and outperformed Perez by 0.011 seconds. Lewis Hamilton, who will start third, also just missed the cut by less than a tenth.
Oscar Piastri and George Russell will be supporting Lando Norris, who is aiming to capitalise on Verstappen’s grid penalty but could only qualify fifth, which turns fourth.
In the drivers’ championship, Norris is 76 points behind Verstappen; nevertheless, in order to win for the second time in his career, he will have to pass three vehicles.
Remarkably, there were no red flags in the rainy qualifying for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who qualified eighth ahead of Esteban Ocon of Alpine and Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin.
“I definitely did not expect that this weekend. Obviously with the tricky conditions we could do something above our expectations,” said Leclerc, who took his 25th career F1 pole.
“Without this rain, probably P5 was the position we were fighting for with the Mercedes especially. But with the rain it helped us a little bit, but I’m not going to complain.
“I’m really happy, I’m really happy with the lap in Q3, and it’s good to be back on the front part of the grid. Now we’ve got to finalise that tomorrow.
“It’s not the easiest first place to keep on the first lap here, but honestly I will see. Every start is different and then once I will be in the car tomorrow through Eau Rouge I will see what the best thing is that I can do. Obviously I’ll try to keep that first place.”
*Verstappen has 10-grid place penalty so will start 11th
**Tsunoda will start at the back due to complete change of power unit
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