Lando Norris Takes Belgian Grand Prix Pole, McLaren Locks Up Front Row

Spa-Francorchamps is no easy track to qualify in, but the McLarens still had the edge in Saturday’s (July 26) qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. British driver Lando Norris seemed right at home, setting a blistering fast lap of 1:40:562 to earn the pole.

Norris’ McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri qualified second, with the Monagesque Charles Leclerc in his rearview mirrors as he qualified third in his Ferrari, with Max Verstappen close behind in fourth.

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Q3

The fight for pole was split between the usual suspects: Verstappen, Norris, and Piastri. The rest of the group got separated from them, and it seemed like fourth was all they could aim for.

Mid-session, Brazilian rookie Gabriel Bortoletto was another victim of the track limit with his lap time deleted, yet his presence in Q3 with his Sauber was already impressive.

By the end, most of the drivers hadn’t started their qualifying run, and their attempts were already hopeless. Norris had set a ballistic pace of 1:40:562.

His teammate, Piastri, had to settle for 2nd, missing out on pole by just 0.085s. In third, Ferrari’s Leclerc pushed just fast enough to snatch the position from Verstappen, who was relegated to fourth.

After a last-minute adjustment with a severe low-drag set-up on his Mercedes, George Russell was able to claim fifth, followed by the rookie Isaack Hadjar in sixth and Yuki Tsunoda in seventh, one of the best qualifying sessions in recent memory for the Japanese driver.

Liam Lawson in eighth, Alex Albon in ninth, and Bortoletto in 10th rounded out the top 10 starting spots.

Q2

The second session was rather uneventful, with several drivers testing out the conditions of the track.

The rookie Oliver Bearman might have skipped a heartbeat during the session, as he lost the car in a fast lap attempt, which could have ended a lot uglier for the Haas driver. Instead, he got away, having to abort the lap and heading back to the pits.

The Q2 clock ran out of time, and the first eliminated were the two Haas cars: Esteban Ocon in 11th and Bearman in 12th position; it was a still a very solid performance by the American team. They were followed by Pierre Gasly in 13th, Nico Hulkenberg in 14th, and Carlos Sainz in 15th.

Q1

The first qualifying session in Belgium hadn’t begun yet, and we already had multiple small incidents in the pit lane as the drivers seemed desperate to get ahead of each other. Hulkenberg was the most affected, as Lance Stroll clipped his front wing and broke it on the left side before even turning one lap.

As expected, the McLarens set the benchmark with several improvements over the session. A last-minute surprise occurred when Lewis Hamilton, who had initially qualified in seventh, had his lap time deleted due to a track limits infraction in turn 4 and was relegated to P16.

In 17th, the Argentine Franco Colapinto was eliminated despite acing the first two sectors on his fast lap, apparently having some issue near the end of the lap. He was followed closely by Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, who certainly had a machine to push for more but couldn’t make it to Q2. The bottom row includes both Aston Martin entries with Fernando Alonso and Stroll eliminated in 19th and 20th, respectively.

The F1 Belgian Grand Prix will begin on Sunday, July 27, at 9:00 a.m. ET. Television coverage in the United States will be provided by ESPN.

Maximo Brignardello

F1 Newswriter | maximobrignar@gmail.com | Website