Norris changes Spa storyline by taking Belgian GP pole

Lando Norris bested McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix despite failing to improve with his final flying lap.

Piastri’s gargantuan advantage from Sprint qualifying on Friday dissolved, and he and Norris were closely matched throughout the grand prix grid-setting session. Norris led the way at the end of the first runs, the Briton 0.189s quicker than Piastri and a long way ahead of the rest of the field, instantly boiling the pole battle to a straight fight between teammates.

But after two segments of improving track conditions, the final minutes of Q3 saw the temperature creep higher, which appeared to deprive the track of grip. The last laps of the pole-getting session suddenly became a slog, with gains difficult to come by.

Norris failed to improve in the first split, and despite a purple middle sector, he ended his lap unable to improve on his original time of 1m40.562s.

It left the door wide open to Piastri to snatch top spot. The Australian put together personal-best times in the first two sectors to put himself in the ballpark, but a failure to improve in the final split left him 0.085s short, confirming his teammate on pole position.

Norris said he never felt his speed was in doubt despite his Friday deficit.

“It was a decent lap,” he said. “Everyone was pretty worried after yesterday. I wasn’t even that far off, it was just a couple of little issues that we had.

“I was confident after yesterday, and I was confident coming into today, so it was nice to see that I could get back to the top. I feel good – the car’s been flying all weekend.”

Piastri said on Friday after taking Sprint pole that the Spa-Francorchamps fast first sector made it one of the worst circuits at which to start first, and though the Australian joked that he’d intended to qualify behind his teammate, he said he was disappointed not to have completed his final lap cleanly.

“After the Sprint I was aiming for P2,” he said with a laugh. “I felt like I did an OKjob today, I just didn’t quite execute when it mattered.

“The second lap was coming together really well, and I just made a little mistake into [Turn] 14 and lost a lot of time. It’s not a bad place to be starting, but there was more in it, which is always disappointing.”

Charles Leclerc was an impressive third for Ferrari, finishing an improved 0.338s off pole after being blown away in Sprint qualifying on Friday. Leclerc put the smaller margin down to the team refining this weekend’s upgrade package, which he said could also help close the gap further in race conditions.

“I’m very happy today,” he said. “It’s strange to say that because it’s still 0.3 seconds and it’s only third place, but I did not expect it. I think we thought we were quite a lot more back.

“We knew that we had something more in the car with the upgrade this weekend, but we still struggled yesterday – but that was a really, really good lap. I’m very happy with the lap, very happy with how the car felt. With the small changes we’ve done, I hope that this gives us the upper hand in the main race.”

Max Verstappen, Sprint winner from earlier in the day, was 0.341s off the pace to qualify fourth, the Dutchman hamstrung by having only one fresh set of softs for Q3, which he saved for his final lap.

Alex Albon was a season-best fifth for Williams ahead of George Russell, the Mercedes driver 0.698s off the pace.

Yuki Tsunoda was seventh in his best qualifying performance for Red Bull Racing, beating his previous best result of eighth in Saudi Arabia and making his first Q3 appearance since Miami in May. The Japanese was 0.381s slower than teammate Verstappen, his second-smallest margin of the year.

Racing Bulls teammates Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson were closely behind Tsunoda in eighth and ninth, while Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto completed the top 10 in the second Q3 appearance of his career.

Haas teammates Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman will share the sixth row despite the two cars being configured very differently. Ocon opted for a low-downforce setup, while Bearman chose to run with a deeper rear wing, but by the end of Q2 the two were separated by just 0.092s.

Pierre Gasly was 13th for Alpine ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Williams driver Carlos Sainz. Hulkenberg will see the stewards after the session over an unsafe release at the start of qualifying, when he and Lance Stroll clumsily collided in the pit lane that required a front wing change for the German.

Lewis Hamilton’s disastrous weekend continued, the five-time Belgium winner knocked out in 16th after having his fastest lap deleted for exceeding track limits. The Briton, who qualified 18th and finished 15th in the Sprint, put all four wheels over the white line at the top of Raidillon on his final lap of Q1, dumping him into the knockout zone just 0.031s from safety.

It was Hamilton’s first Q1 elimination of the season and his first since last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Franco Colapinto will line up 17th for Alpine ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the Mercedes driver also enduring a tough weekend after qualifying last and finishing 17th in the Sprint. It was the Italian’s second Q1 elimination of the year, the last being at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Aston Martin teammates Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll locked out the back row of the grid in 19th and 20th, the team’s first double Q1 elimination since May’s Miami Grand Prix.

The result halts the team’s upward momentum in recent months, this being just the second time in the last seven grands prix that Alonso has failed to make it into Q3, though it was Stroll’s fourth Q1 elimination in succession and ninth for the season.

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