Antonelli beats Verstappen to Belgian GP pole

Kimi Antonelli bested Max Verstappen to take a sixth pole position of the Formula 1 season at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Despite a breezy build-up to qualifying that appeared to have him poised to take pole comfortably, Antonelli found himself unexpectedly pipped by Lando Norris after the first runs of Q3, the gap between them 0.039s. The title leader, however, had plenty more pace in reserve, finding a stunning 0.479s, including with a purple final sector, to rocket to top spot with a best time of 1m44.678s.

A mistake from Norris at Les Fagnes, where he came perilously close to repeating Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly’s crashes during practice, forced him to abandon his final run, but it was Verstappen who was rising as Antonelli’s closest challenger.

The Dutchman’s teammate, Isack Hadjar, was carrying a 30-place grid penalty for changing engine parts. With a back-row start guaranteed, he instead was deployed to give the sister car a slipstream through the long final sector on both runs.

The two Red Bull Racing cars got alarmingly close on the final lap, with Verstappen right on Hadjar’s gearbox as they swept through Blanchimont, getting him within just 0.085s of Antonelli’s best time in the final split. But it wasn’t enough to overcome the Italian’s advantage around the rest of the lap, falling 0.317s short overall to hand Antonelli pole position.

“We were able to improve lap by lap to bring home pole, which was nice,” he said. “The last lap was good. I improved a lot in Sector 2 especially. It was a nice lap … very clean, so very happy with that.

“But tomorrow is another day. I have Max starting next to me, so it’s going to be important to get a good start and be ahead into Turn 5 [Raidillon]. It’s going to be fun tomorrow.”

Verstappen praised Hadjar for gaining what he figured was as many as four places on the grid.

“It was definitely helping me, otherwise I would not be standing here,” he said. “Otherwise I think we are like P6 or something. He did a really good job giving me a tow in the final sector. That’s why we are standing right here.

“For sure tomorrow I’ll be looking in my mirrors at the people around me, but at least today I think we had a really good result.”

Norris’s first lap was impressive enough to put him third in the final order despite the McLaren driver discontinuing his final lap, but the reigning world champion will start 13th after serving a grid penalty for changing engine parts.

“It’s nice to be standing here, just not nice knowing I have to go 10 places back tomorrow,” he said. “Unfortunate that this isn’t where we’re starting tomorrow, because it would be nice to have a little fight with these guys, but we made the most of it. It was still a very good qualifying, a very good lap for me.

“I’ve been pretty happy all weekend. I’ve performed well all weekend so far. Hopefully we can still have a good race tomorrow – we can have some fun.”

George Russell shrunk his deficit to his pole-getting teammate over the weekend but couldn’t get within half a second, the Briton qualifying fourth and 0.508s off the pace, the bulk of which fell into the final split, as has been the case all weekend.

Charles Leclerc led the way for Ferrari in fifth, 0.532s off the pace. Teammate Lewis Hamilton – whose car was equipped with a new rear wing, a new floor, new suspension and a fresh gearbox following his FP3 crash – followed in sixth and only 0.002s further back.

Oscar Piastri couldn’t match teammate Norris with either of his Q3 laps, qualifying seventh and 0.655s off pole, with most of his 0.215s deficit to the sister car in the final split.

Arvid Lindblad qualified a career-best eighth in his updated Racing Bulls car, which will become a career-high seventh on the grid after Norris serves his penalty.

Gabriel Bortoleto qualified ninth for Audi ahead of Hadjar, who didn’t set a time and will start 21st after serving his engine penalties.

Liam Lawson, without the upgrade package available to Q3-bound teammate Lindblad, qualified 11th, falling short of a spot in the top 10 by only 0.038s. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto were separated by just 0.061s in 12th and 13th. All three will gain two places on the grid thanks to Norris and Hadjar’s penalties.

Nico Hulkenberg qualified 14th and had his equal lowest qualifying result of the season compounded by a stoppage at Speaker Corner on his way back to pit lane owing to a hydraulic leak, with efforts to collect the car delaying the start of Q3.

Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman brought up the rear of Q3 in 15th and 16th.

Alex Albon missed out on a shot at Q2 by just 0.007s after a small mistake at the final corner. It was the third time from the last four grands prix the Williams driver has been eliminated from the first segment of qualifying.

Esteban Ocon was knocked out in Q1 for the fifth in six grands prix, the under-pressure Haas driver 0.688s slower than Q2-bound teammate Bearman.

Valtteri Bottas outqualified Cadillac teammate Sergio Perez by 0.148s after the teammates appeared to slipstream each other early in the qualifying segment.

Aston Martin teammates Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll qualified last for the fifth grand prix in a row and sixth time this season, the Spaniard 4.137s off the pace and the Canadian another 0.175s further back. Both drivers will serve grid penalties for engine changes, but whereas Alonso will start last with 20 places of penalties, Stroll will be promoted to 20th to make space for Hadjar, who will start behind him in 21st.

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