The defending world champion was in a different speed zone as Max Verstappen beat Charles Leclerc by a massive eight tenths of a second in a wet-to-dry qualifying session at Spa.
Verstappen had entered the Belgian Grand Prix qualifying having had a fifth gearbox of the season fitted, which means a five-place grid penalty for the main event but does not impact his starting spot for Saturday’s sprint race.
The Red Bull driver had trailed Leclerc after the first runs in Q3 – having only just scraped through in P10 in Q2 following the switch from wet to dry tyres in that session and as he disagreed with Red Bull’s run plan that led to a tense radio exchange with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
On the second runs in Q3, Leclerc led the frontrunners around and improved the top spot benchmark with a lap time of one minute, 46.988 seconds – gaining nearly a second on his previous personal best.
He was untroubled by all but Verstappen, who was running deep in the Q3 pack behind, blasted to the top position in all three sectors on his final lap and he secured the fastest time with one minute, 46.168 seconds, with the world champion set to start Sunday’s race in sixth following his penalty.
Sergio Perez will join Leclerc on the front row for that event as he improved with his final run to knock Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton down to fourth position.
Hamilton faces a post-qualifying investigation for a possible unsafe rejoining infraction following a bizarre incident in which he briefly went off the track at Eau Rouge/Raidillon while running ahead of teammate George Russell, who ended up eighth in Q3.
Carlos Sainz finished fifth ahead of the McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, who went off into the gravel exiting the second part of the Stavelot sequence during the early wet running on the intermediates in Q1.
Aston Martin Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten, with the double world champion ahead and finishing behind Russell.
In Q2, led by Piastri with a one minute, 51.534 seconds, the field made the switch from the inter after the first half of the middle segment – a dry line having appeared around much of the long Spa layout.
This increased the track evolution factor that had dominated the Q1 segment, with several drivers putting in times that had them high up the order when they crossed the line with the chequered flag out, only for the rest behind to go even quicker and shuffle them down and out.
This happened to Yuki Tsunoda, who had briefly been top in Q2 with his personal best time set right at the end of that part of qualifying, with the AlphaTauri driver eventually eliminated in P11.
Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen set their personal bests after much of the rest had completed their final laps, but they did not trouble the top ten and they were knocked out behind Tsunoda.
Valtteri Bottas, who had led the change to slicks aboard his Alfa Romeo and ran on them longest, ended up in P14, with Esteban Ocon P15 after crashing at Turn 9 while he was pushing early in the late-Q2 slicks running.
The Alpine driver lost control of the rear of his car over a part of the circuit that was still rather wet, his right rear wheel hitting the barriers on the track’s outside before his right front also hit the advertising hoardings at that spot, which ripped several of these off and badly damaged Ocon’s front wing.
He managed to keep going and made it back to the pits, but Ocon did not take part in the final Q2 running, and the gravel that had been brought onto the track during this incident had to be swept away before Q3 began, which triggered another five-minute delay before the final segment began.
Q1, which Leclerc eventually topped, was delayed by ten minutes to allow extra time for the track to dry out following the dousing it had had only 30 minutes earlier in the preceding Formula 2 practice session.
The Mercedes drivers were sent to the end of the pitlane well ahead of the rest, where Russell noted the bright sunshine burst through the clouds over the La Source hairpin on the other side of the pitwall, while Hamilton spotted his right-side mirror had become dislodged.
When the action did get going, the cars circulated more or less throughout other than coming into change inters at some teams, for fear of more rain arriving from the direction of the Les Combes chicane, as the times fell from Russell’s initial two minutes, 02 seconds bracket to Leclerc’s then best of one minute, 58.300 seconds.
He jumped from P16 in the drop zone ahead of completing his final lap, with the times getting ever quicker and the improvements meaning Albon was shuffled down the order as he did not complete his lap following an off at Turn 9, which will be investigated now qualifying has been completed for a possible unsafely rejoining.
Albon was joined in exiting in Q1 by Zhou Guanyu, who could not produce a personal best on his final flier, while Logan Sargeant just behind did but nevertheless got eliminated in 18th.
Sargeant missed the first half of Q1 as Williams worked to change his gearbox following his FP1 crash, with the American likely to have missed any qualifying running ahead the session’s start not been delayed.
Daniel Ricciardo thought he had done enough to progress but the Australian’s second 2023 qualifying for AlphaTauri was brought to an early end as his best time, set on his final lap, was deleted for a track limits violation at Raidillon.
Nico Hulkenberg missed taking part in the final fliers as Haas had to try and work to fix a hydraulic issue on his car and although he headed back out in the closing minutes of Q1 he did not have enough time to get around and start a full-speed lap.
So congratulations to Max Verstappen in being the fastest at Spa. The speed was mighty impressive and despite the gearbox penalty, overtaking at Spa is possible so Max can fight through to take another solid points finish.
Charles Leclerc inherits P1 for Ferrari so it will be interesting if he has the race pace to hold off the Red Bulls in the main race.
Belgian Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:46.988
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:47.045
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:47.087
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:47.152
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:47.365
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:46.168*
7 Lando Norris McLaren 1:47.669
8 George Russell Mercedes 1:47.805
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:47.843
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:48.841
11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:53.148
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:53.671
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:54.160
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:54.694
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:56.372
16 Alex Albon Williams 2:00.314
17 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 2:00.832
18 Logan Sargeant Williams 2:01.535
19 Daniel Ricciardo AlphaTauri 2:02.159
20 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 2:03.166
*Five-place grid penalty for gearbox change
Belgian Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Max Verstappen claimed a thrilling pole position for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, but a five-place grid penalty sees him drop down the order with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set to start P1.
With limited running in the lone practice session earlier at Spa in the day due to heavy rain, there were plenty of unknowns regarding the pecking order heading into qualifying – but it was Verstappen who eventually shone the brightest.
On the first runs in Q3, it was Leclerc who went fastest with a time of 1m 47.931s, leading Verstappen in second by over a tenth. His Ferrari team mate, Carlos Sainz completed the top three, albeit over four-tenths behind the Monegasque.
However, after Leclerc once again improved his time, Verstappen came across the line to take pole position by a massive eight-tenths from the Ferrari driver – although Leclerc will inherit pole after Verstappen’s five-place grid drop – with his team mate Sergio Perez, in third, albeit nine-tenths off the pace.
Last week’s pole-sitter in Budapest, Lewis Hamilton, pulled out a brilliant final sector to go up to fourth, pushing the Ferrari of Sainz down to fifth.
Fresh from back-to-back podium outings, it was not the position McLaren have become accustomed to with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris sixth and seventh, respectively, ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.penalty-hit-verstappen-fastest-in-belgian-gp-qualifying-as-leclerc-set-to.2V10zIKyjX09FiFVQZuruL.html
Charles Leclerc says the work he did to improve his weakness in mixed conditions has paid off as he inherited pole for Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Leclerc took second in Friday qualifying for Sunday’s race, ceding eight tenths to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Q3 on a drying track.
But as Verstappen was hit with a five-place grid penalty for taking his fifth gearbox of the season, one more than is allowed, Leclerc will line up first on Sunday.
After recently admitting he was struggling in mixed-weather conditions, particularly with finding grip on slicks on a damp circuit, Leclerc thought his performance in Q3 was a reward for his efforts to cure that weakness.
“Not bad qualifying for us, especially in those conditions,” Leclerc said.
“It is always tricky to put everything together. I put a lot of work in those conditions, as I wasn’t really comfortable a few races ago. And it seems to pay off.
“We went a bit too early for that last run, but pole was definitely not for us today.
“Max was too quick, but we could have been a bit closer. Having said that we have a great starting position for Sunday.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/leclerc-work-on-mixed-condition-weakness-paid-off-at-spa-f1/10501323/
Max Verstappen says he was “lucky to be in P10” in the second part of qualifying at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix after scraping through on a drying track.
Verstappen set the fastest time in Friday qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps, which will be converted to sixth on the grid due to a gearbox penalty, after putting a massive eight tenths on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the end of Q3.
But Verstappen almost didn’t make it through to the top 10 shootout at all, having just dodged elimination in Q2 while the track was still wet.
A disagreement over his run plan prompted a fiery exchange with his Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, though the world champion later apologised for his outburst.
“It was very tight,” he said. “Of course, the conditions are very tricky, the track was really drying quickly.
“And yeah, my final lap, I just didn’t have that confidence in Q2 to push more. And I was very lucky to be in P10.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-lucky-to-survive-q2-in-belgian-gp-f1-qualifying/10501360/
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen has received a three-place grid penalty for Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix after impeding Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in qualifying.
In Q2, Magnussen hit the wall coming out of Speaker’s Corner and, with his damaged Haas, the Dane stuck to the racing line through the following corners, severely hindering Leclerc.
The Monegasque driver made his displeasure known on the team radio and called for Magnussen to be penalised.
Following a post-session investigation, the stewards slapped Magnussen with a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race, as they said that he and his Haas team should have taken more care to avoid holding up the Ferrari.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/magnussen-gets-belgian-gp-grid-penalty-for-impeding-leclerc/10501457/