Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start the Belgian Grand Prix from pole position after qualifying second fastest behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
World champion Verstappen dominated qualifying in the rain and beat Leclerc by 0.595 seconds but has a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his permitted number of engine components.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was third fastest, so will be promoted to the front row alongside Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton will start third for Mercedes, ahead of the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Mercedes’ George Russell was seventh fastest, from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and the Alpine of Esteban Ocon.
Verstappen came to Belgium for the final race before the summer break on the back of a shaky run of form, with McLaren appearing to have seized the ascendancy in Formula 1.
But he was in imperious form on his favourite track, where he has won the past three years, and always seemed to destined to be fastest.
The conditions were tricky. The track was wet at the start of qualifying, and persistent light rain kept it that way throughout, but the weather never deteriorated to the point that the session was at risk of being stopped – the amount of spray was limited and drivers were always able to see where they were going.
“It was a nice qualifying. Luckily the weather was OK. It was raining a little bit but we could do a decent qualifying,” Verstappen said.
“Everything went well. Every tyre set I was on, we could do decent lap times. The car was working quite well in the wet. I was just able to do clean laps.
“Tomorrow is going to be a different day, warmer and no rain, so it will be about tyre degradation, I don’t know how quick we are going to be. I hope we can be in the mix to try and move forward.”
‘Still a damage limitation race’ – Verstappen
Verstappen (right) is playing down his chances of race victory, despite dominating in qualifying
Verstappen’s domination was underlined by the fact that the gap between him and Leclerc was bigger than the margin separating the Ferrari from Russell in seventh.
But the championship leader said he was not as confident of coming back through the field as he was in the last two years, when he won from 14th in 2022 and sixth last year.
“I am not as confident as in the last two years coming back to the front,” he said. “I still see it as a damage limitation race. That’s what it is.”
Leclerc’s presence in second – and therefore on pole position thanks to Verstappen’s penalty, just as he was last year – was not expected, least of all by the man himself.
