Lando Norris overlooked McLaren -teammate Oscar Piastri to pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix, even though he was not improved with his last flying round.
Piastri’s huge benefit of Sprint qualification dissolved on Friday, and he and Norris were closely agreed during the Grand Prix Grid session session. Norris was at the forefront at the end of the first runs, the Brit 0.189s faster than Piastri and a long road for the rest of the field, immediately cooking the pole fight into a straight battle between teammates.
But after two segments of improving the rail conditions, the last minutes of the Q3 saw the temperature crawling higher, which seemed to rob the trail of grip. The last laps of the wrist session suddenly became a slog, with a profit hard to find.
Norris was unable to improve in the first split, and despite a purple middle sector, he ended his lap unable to improve his original time of 1m40.562s.
It left the door wide open for Piastri to take the top place. The Australian has put together personal best times in the first two sectors to place themselves in the margin, but a failure to improve in the last split on the left him 0.085s short, so that his teammate was confirmed in pole position.
Norris said he never felt that his speed was questionable despite his shortage of Friday.
“It was quite a round,” he said. “Everyone was quite worried after yesterday. I wasn’t even that far away, they were just a few small problems we had.
“I had it confident after yesterday, and I was sure that I came in today, so it was nice to see that I could come back to the top. I feel good – the car flown all weekend.”
Piatri said on Friday after taking Sprint Pole that the Spa-Francorchamps Fast First sector made it one of the worst circuits to start first, and although the Australian joked that he was planning to qualify behind his teammate, he said he was disappointed not to have completed his last round.
“After the sprint, I strived for P2,” he said laughing. “I felt that I did an Okjob today, I just didn’t do it completely when it mattered.
“The second round came together very well, and I just made a small mistake [Turn] 14 and lost a lot of time. It is not a bad place to start with, but there was more in it, which is always disappointing. “
Charles Leclerc was an impressive third for Ferrari and ended an improved 0.338s of the post after he had been blown away in Sprint qualification on Friday. Leclerc set the smaller margin on the team that refined this weekend’s upgrade package, which he said could also help to close the gap in racing conditions.
“I am very happy today,” he said. “It is strange to say that because it is still 0.3 seconds and it is only third place, but I did not expect it. I think we thought we were quite much more back.
“We knew that we had a little more in the car this weekend with the upgrade, but we were still struggling yesterday – but that was really a real, really good round. I am very happy with the round, very happy with how the car felt. With the small changes we have made, I hope this gives us the upper hand in the main race.”
Max Verstappen, Sprint -winner from earlier in the daywas 0.341s from the pace to qualify fourth, the Dutchman Hamstrung by having just one fresh set of softs for Q3, which he saved for his final round.
Alex Albon was a season-best fifth for Williams for George Russell, the Mercedes driver 0.698s outside the pace.
Yuki Tsunoda was seventh in his best qualifying performance for Red Bull Racing, beat his previous best result of eighth in Saudi Arabia and made his first Q3 appearance since Miami in May. The Japanese were 0.381’s slower than teammate Verstappen, are the second largest margin of the year.
Racing Bulls teammates Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson were closely behind Tsunoda in the eighth and ninth, while Sauber Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto completed the top 10 in the second Q3 -appearing of his career.
Haas teammates Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman will share the sixth row, despite the fact that the two cars are configured very differently. Ocon opted for a low-downforce setup, while the Bearman chose to run with a deeper rear wing, but by the end of Q2 the two were separated by only 0.092s.
Pierre Gasly became 13th for Alpine for Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Williams director Carlos Sainz. After the session, Hulkenberg will see the stewards about an unsafe release at the start of qualification, when he and Lance clash incorporated in the Pitlane, which required a front wing change for the German.
The disastrous weekend of Lewis Hamilton took place, the five -fold Belgian winner eliminated in the 16th after his fastest lap for alien track limits. The Brit, who qualified as 18th and finished 15th in the sprint, placed all four wheels across the white line at the top of Raidillon on his last round of Q1 and dumped it only 0.031s of safety in the knockout zone.
It was Hamilton’s first Q1 elimination of the season and his first since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year.
Franco Colapinto will set the 17th place for Alpine for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the Mercedes driver has also passed a tough weekend after the last qualification and 17th in the sprint. It was the second Q1 elimination of Italian of the Year, the last one was with the seasonal Australian Grand Prix.
Aston Martin teammates Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll locked the rear row of the schedule in the 19th and 20th, the first double Q1 elimination of the team since Miami Grand Prix from May.
The result stops the upward momentum of the team in recent months, this is only the second time in the last seven Grands Prix that Alonso did not succeed in reaching the Q3, although it was the fourth Q1 elimination of Stroll in the follow -up and the ninth for the season.
Result
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