Championship leader Max Verstappen dominated qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps but grid penalties mean Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz will line up on pole position.
The Red Bull driver elected not to take part in the final shootout in Q3, knowing he will start from the back of the grid owing to a drop for exceeding his permitted parts count.
Nevertheless, his banker lap was so fast that he topped the session by six tenths of a second as Sainz’s messy final flying lap meant he was unable to improve.
Sergio Perez will join the Scuderia on the front row of the grid, while Leclerc will meet Verstappen as the pair are poised to line up in P13 and P14.
Verstappen was a class apart after the first round of flying laps in the final to qualifying, the defending champopn setting a one minute, 43.665 seconds – the sole sub one minute, 44 seconds lap of the weekend.
That gave him a mighty 0.632 seconds in hand over Sainz, while Perez was third and another two tenths back before his lap was flagged for exceeding track limits at Raidillon.
Leclerc, meanwhile, was fourth, having been initially sent out on a set of scrubbed softs.
While both Alpines, Mercedes, Norris and Albon were also released on used rubber, Ferrari admitted over team radio this was a mistake.
Team boss Mattia Binotto even appeared to intimate pointing a gun to his head on the pit wall after Leclerc crossed the line.
Leclerc then dived back out of the pits after his sole effort to just pick up Sainz out of La Source to tow his teammate down the long Kemmel Straight.
But the tactics proved in vain as Sainz missed his personal best first sector before clipping the gravel through Les Fanges to wind up on a one minute, 44.714 seconds and duly failing to improve.
That left his earlier one minute, 44.297 seconds as his best effort, however the British Grand Prix winner has no penalties to carry over to the grid to line up on first.
Perez similarly failed to improve at his second attempt, while Esteban Ocon (also destined to be sent to the back of the grid) pipped Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso for a team 5-6 result.
Lewis Hamilton led George Russell for seventh and eighth, the W13s running some 1.8 seconds off Verstappen. A massive disadvantage in terms of performance…
Mercedes appears to be on the back foot for what might have been its best shot at a race win in 2022 given Verstappen and Leclerc’s reprimand.
Alex Albon starred in Q3 as Williams made its straight-line speed count in the opening sector (Albon running fastest of everyone), as he clocked ninth and is poised to line up in sixth position.
Lando Norris, meanwhile, opted against a second flying lap and was P10 in Q1, but he too has penalties to serve.
Albon’s late dash over the line in Q2 bumped Daniel Ricciardo out by 0.1 seconds, although the departing McLaren driver is set to start in seventh place with grid penalties considered.
Ricciardo stayed in the garage initially to pin all his hopes on one flying lap. But with teammate Norris destined to start at the back of the grid, Ricciardo was given a tow by his McLaren colleague.
The McLarens worked together for the Kemmel Straight but even still Daniel ran slower than Lando’s likely unaided lap to sit in P10 before Albon improved over the line.
That relegated Ricciardo, where he was joined on the sidelines by AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu in the Alfa Romeo, Lance Stroll and Mick Schumacher, who ran P15 fastest.
Neither Red Bull required a second bite of the cherry and so remained in the garage, which left the door open for Leclerc to top Q2 late on by 0.15 seconds courtesy of his one minute, 44.551 seconds effort.
However, his banker had been only good enough for sixth – the Ferrari driver have clipped the grass in his “very strange” car before losing the back end through the Bus Stop chicane.
Perez ending Q2 only 0.07 seconds adrift of Verstappen was a little flattered by him running fresh soft Pirellis while the defending champion plied his trade on a scrubbed set of tyres.
Sebastian Vettel was the first driver to miss out on a Q2 appearance, the retiring Aston Martin driver being knocked at in the first 18-minute session yet again.
The four-time champion crossed the line just 0.002 seconds adrift of the cut-off, set by his effective protégé Schumacher in P15 after the Haas driver’s late improvement.
With Verstappen sitting pretty by 0.5 seconds at the top of the leaderboard over Sainz after their banker laps, neither Red Bull nor Ferrari drivers opted for a second flying lap as they occupied the top four positions.
The remaining 15 cars, with Ocon then fifth, headed out with three minutes and 30 seconds to go and felt the benefit of track evolution as all those in the bottom five place began to improve.
Yuki Tsunoda had been P15 at the time and the first driver at risk, and the AlphaTauri driver did his chances no favour when he locked up massively into the Bus Stop chicane to abort the corner and left himself prey. He was duly bumped to P19.
He was only faster than Valtteri Bottas, but the Alfa Romeo driver was already destined to start near the back of the grid owing to a 20-place penalty for component changes – much like Norris, Schumacher, Ocon, Zhou, Leclerc, and Verstappen.
As a result, it appears likely that despite his mistake, Tsunoda will start the race in P13.
Kevin Magnussen was only P18 fastest, behind Nicholas Latifi in P17 – while Williams team-mate Albon using the low-downforce FW44 to smash the fast-opening sector to climb to sixth in Q1.
The start of qualifying had been delayed by 25 minutes, announced a quarter of an hour before the session began, owing to Les Fagnes barrier repairs prompted by a Porsche Supercup shunt.
So a mixed up grid positions for the Belgian Grand Prix following a raft of grid penalties due to a exceeding parts of the power unit. This will certainly make the Spa-Francorchamps race exciting.
Belgian Grand Prix starting grid after penalties are applied:
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:44.297
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:44.462
3 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:45.368
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:45.503
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:45.776
6 Alex Albon Williams 1:45.837
7 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:45.767
8 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:45.827
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:46.611
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:46.344
11 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:46.401
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:46.557
13 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:46.692
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:47.866
15 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:43.665
16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1;44.553
17 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:45.180
18 Lando Norris McLaren 1:46.178
19 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:46.085
20 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:47.718
Belgian Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen aced qualifying for the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix – but Carlos Sainz will start on pole position for Ferrari after grid penalties come into play at Spa-Francorchamps.
With seven drivers – Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher and Valtteri Bottas – taking grid penalties, the rest of field were essentially facing off for the top 13 positions on the grid.
As a result, Sainz’s scrappy Q3 lap for P2 will see him start first ahead of Sergio Perez, while Verstappen and Leclerc will drop to P15 and P16 respectively having qualified P1 and P4 overall.
Ocon qualified fifth ahead of Fernando Alonso in P6 for Alpine, but the Frenchman will drop behind Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton took P7 ahead of Mercedes team mate George Russell, while Alex Albon made it to Q3 for the first time this season and qualified a provisional ninth.
Of course, those four drivers will be promoted three places apiece, while 10th-place qualifier Lando Norris will start 18th on the grid.
Daniel Ricciardo missed out on the top 10 by finishing 11th for McLaren in Q2, while Pierre Gasly finished 12th for AlphaTauri. Zhou Guanyu, Lance Stroll, and Mick Schumacher were eliminated from Q2 from P13 to P15, respectively. However, penalties for others will see Ricciardo, Gasly and Stroll start within the top 10 on Sunday – and Zhou and Schumacher start on the back row.
Q1 was delayed by 25 minutes, and when the session began it was Verstappen who set the benchmark ahead of Sainz and Perez as Sebastian Vettel was eliminated in P16 by 0.002s, followed by Williams’ Nicholas Latifi in P17 – that pair set to be promoted into a respective P10 and P11 on the grid.
Haas’s Kevin Magnussen finished 18th due to a Turn 8 lock-up, Yuki Tsunoda up next in P19 having locked up heavily in the final chicane, and Valtteri Bottas rounding out the standings in P20. That trio will jump to P12, P13 and P14 respectively for Sunday’s race.
Q1 – Verstappen sets the pace in one take
Grid penalties became the talk of the paddock at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday and Saturday. Those hit with back-of-grid penalties for the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix are: FP2 leader Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris, Ocon, Zhou and Schumacher. Meanwhile, Bottas has 20 places worth of penalties for his component choices.
Sainz and Perez would therefore have a prime chance for pole as two of the 13 drivers not awaiting penalties for Sunday’s Grand Prix – but they’d all have to wait as Q1 was delayed 25 minutes for a Porsche Supercup crash, and the resulting repairs.
However, it was Verstappen who proved the driver to beat in Q1 as he set the early target of 1m 44.581s, Sainz dropping to P2 by 0.469s and Perez third by 0.796s to leave Leclerc nearly a second off in P4 – with Stroll, Latifi, Schumacher and both Alfa Romeos in the provisional drop zone.
Mercedes struggled to warm their tyres and started Q1 with a brace of flying efforts that saw Russell go 10th and Hamilton 11th. There was still time for the whole field to improve, though neither the Red Bulls nor Ferraris emerged for a second run.
With spits of rain reported through Eau Rouge, Russell rounded out the top five by 1.069s with Albon going sixth to split the Mercedes as Hamilton took P7. That left Norris eighth – Ricciardo dropping to P13 due to a track limit violation.
Ocon finished just ahead of Alonso as Alpine took P9 and P10, leaving Gasly 12th.
Stroll finished 14th, Schumacher a tenth behind in P15 – as Vettel was eliminated from Q1 by a margin of 0.002s to his compatriot. Latifi and Magnussen were next on the board as they missed out on Q2, the Haas driver locking up at Turn 8.
Alfa Romeo driver Bottas’s run of 148 Q1 progressions came to an end as he was knocked out in P20, behind Tsunoda – who locked up at the final chicane to finish P19 for AlphaTauri.
Knocked out: Vettel, Latifi, Magnussen, Tsunoda, Bottas
Q2 – Leclerc leads Red Bulls as Albon makes it through
Verstappen came out swinging in Q2 with a time of 1m 44.723s, his team mate Perez just 0.071s off with his effort – while Sainz was another six-tenths behind in P3 and team mate Leclerc was sixth-fastest having reported his car to be “jumping like crazy in the apex of slow corners”.
Ricciardo sat P15 after the first runs having not set a time, joining Albon, then Zhou, Stroll and Schumacher in the provisional drop zone.
When Ricciardo emerged, he was towed by McLaren counterpart Norris – Alpine following suit with Ocon towing Alonso down the Kemmel straight. Meanwhile, Red Bull decide to forgo another run.
Leclerc eventually jumped to P1 with a time of 1m 44.551s, leaving Verstappen second by 0.172s and Perez 0.243s off in P3. Sainz ended up fourth in Q2, 0.867s off the pace having also decided against another run – while Hamilton took fifth and Russell sixth.
Ocon finished eighth and towed Alonso to ninth on his second run, while McLaren echoed Alpine’s teamwork with ninth-place Norris towing Ricciardo – but the Australian could only finish 11th, missing out on Q3 by a tenth of a second.
It was Williams’ Alex Albon who finished 10th in Q2, making it to the top 10 shootout for the first time this season and guaranteeing at least P6 on the grid.
Knocked out: Ricciardo, Gasly, Zhou, Stroll, Schumacher
Q3 – Verstappen puts on a show but Sainz secures pole
Verstappen, Ocon, Norris and Leclerc were the four drivers in Q3 set to be demoted to the back of the grid. Despite that, the Dutchman went top with his first flying lap, a time of 1m 43.665s putting him six-tenths ahead of Sainz in P2.
“Wait, what are these tyres?!” came a baffled radio message from Leclerc as he emerged for the top-10 shootout. Anticipating penalties, he would be towing Sainz to help the Spaniard fight for pole – but the team had erroneously stuck the Monegasque the wrong set of softs.
Perez meanwhile had his lap for P3 chalked off for track limits, Leclerc completing his lap to take that third place despite the tyre confusion.
Second runs incoming, Verstappen decided to sit the end of qualifying out as the fastest man on track, while Leclerc emerged only to tow his team mate up Raidillon and the Kemmel Straight. The execution might have been lacking as Sainz lost three-tenths in the first sector alone, kicking up gravel to lose even more time in Sector 2. He did not improve.
Yet neither did the top four, and while it was a qualifying win for Red Bull, Sainz would start on pole position having taken P2 in Q3 – Perez to join him on the front row while Verstappen would drop to 15th and Leclerc 16th for Sunday’s race.
Although Ocon rounded out the top five, he will start 17th, while sixth-place qualifier Alonso takes third on the grid. Hamilton will join Alonso on row two having qualified seventh ahead of Mercedes team mate Russell, with Albon beginning the race in sixth having finished ninth on Saturday.
By rounding out the top 10 in Q3, Norris will start 18th behind Ocon.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Sainz commented that the Scuderia F1 team must “keep digging” for answers to reduce the performance gap to Red Bull. Motorsport.com has the news story.
Ferrari Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz has urged the Scuderia to “keep digging” for answers on why Red Bull is so much quicker after being outclassed in Belgian Grand Prix qualifying.
Sainz took pole in qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps after finishing second to Max Verstappen in Q3, who is set to start from the rear of the grid as one of seven drivers penalised for engine changes.
The Spaniard’s enthusiasm on his second career F1 pole was dampened by the huge 0.632s gap to Verstappen as Red Bull looked dominant throughout the Belgian GP weekend, the first race after the summer break.
Sainz has urged Ferrari to find answers as to why it appears to have lost any one-lap advantage it had at various tracks before the summer.
“Happy to be starting on pole obviously,” Sainz said. “Not so happy to see the gap to Max this weekend and the gap that Red Bull has on us.
“We need to keep digging to see why Red Bull is so fast around this track.
“But to start from pole is a good place to start and we will try and win from there tomorrow.”
Despite a “messy” final run in Q3, Sainz still managed to beat the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez in what was effectively the battle for net pole, although Red Bull’s apparent pace advantage still has Sainz worried about the Mexican’s challenge tomorrow.
“My Q3 run one was cleaner,” he said. “The out lap was a bit of a mess playing with the tows, see who wanted to lead, in the end I had to lead and I had no tow and I had to take the lead there.
“In general, it was a bit of a mess and the first lap was good enough for P2, which I knew was going give me the pole.
“But yet still a bit puzzled to see this big gap to Max and to see the big gap to Red Bull, which makes me wonder what’s going to happen tomorrow in the race because I think our race pace is a bit better than our quali pace.
“But there’s definitely something there to find.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen admitted that not finishing on the Belgian Grand Prix podium will be a “shame” despite having the quickest car at Spa. Motorsport.com provides the full details.
Max Verstappen thinks it will be a “shame” if he doesn’t end up on the podium for Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix, despite being set to start from 15th on the grid.
The world champion has been in sensational form over the Spa-Francorchamps weekend, despite knowing that he was heading in to the race with a back of the grid penalty for an engine change.
But that has not hindered his pace, as the Red Bull driver ended up qualifying seven tenths of a second clear of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who will actually start from pole.
After praising the form of his Red Bull, Verstappen said he had lofty ambitions for coming through the field in the race.
“We need to move forward,” he said. “I think especially with a car like this, it will be a shame not to be on the podium.”
Verstappen said Red Bull had hit the ground running in Belgium, and was delighted with how the RB18 was handling.
“It was an amazing qualifying, but I think already the whole weekend, we’ve been on it, he said.
“The car has been working really well and just basically trying to fine tune it. And it all came together in qualifying.
“Of course, you have to be a bit careful with the amount of tyres I was using, also looking for tomorrow, starting in the back, but yeah, very happy with my lap and it’s great to be here.
“It’s an amazing track, amazing fans around. I hope they had a good day.”
He added: “Sometimes it’s a bit easier to nail a lap than other tracks, where if you have a tiny lock up, big lap time losses. I would say it’s definitely one of the best [qualifying laps of my season].”