26/07/2025 17:07
Lando Norris has taken pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix,
beating team-mate Oscar Piastri to the top spot by less than
one-tenth of a second. The battle for pole came down to the two
McLarens, but only Piastri managed to improve on his final effort.
It was not enough to beat Norris' initial attempt however, allowing
the Briton to seal pole position one day on from Piastri's crushing
defeat around Spa-Francorchamps. Charles Leclerc managed to pip Max
Verstappen to third place, while Alex Albon left it late to bag a
sensational fifth-place result for Williams. A nightmare day was
endured by Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli - the two usual Q3
contenders were unable to advance out of the first stage of
qualifying for the second day running. George Russell was sixth in
the other Mercedes, while Yuki Tsunoda had his best qualifying
performance for some time with a run to seventh. Both Racing Bulls
progressed into the top 10, with Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson
ending the day in eighth and ninth respectively. Gabriel Bortoleto
produced another strong performance and put himself in the top 10
for the start of the race on Sunday. Both Haas' narrowly missed out
on a spot in the top 10, with Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman
ending the day in 11th and 12th. Pierre Gasly was 13th in the
leading Alpine car, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, fresh from his podium
at Silverstone earlier this month. Sainz could not repeat his
heroics from the sprint shootout and ended the day in 15th, marking
a disappointing result for the Spaniard. Hamilton's tough weekend
at Spa-Francorchamps continued as he failed to exit the opening
segment of qualifying. Having started the sprint race from towards
the back of the grid, the Ferrari driver is set for the same fate
on Sunday after clocking the 16th fastest lap in Q1. Hamilton
originally believed he had made it through, before his lap time was
deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 4. Joining Hamilton in
the first drop zone were rookies Franco Colapinto and Kimi
Antonelli, who ended the day in 17th and 18th respectively. Aston
Martin endured a shocker of a result, having appeared to make gains
at recent race events with upgrades. The Silverstone-based squad
was by far the slowest team in qualifying, with Fernando Alonso and
Lance Stroll locking out the last two spots on the timesheet.
