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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc To Start From Pole Position As Penalty Demotes Max Verstappen

By Robert Haile

The damp Belgian Grand Prix has so far lived up to its reputation as Max Verstappen took another pole position but Charles Leclerc will start on pole.

A penalty for the two time World Champion Verstappen will drop him to sixth after setting a blistering pole lap to beat Ferrari’s Leclerc.

The five place grid penalty for Verstappen is a routine one as Red Bull replace his gearbox exceeding the allotted amount for the season.

Speaking afterwards Verstappen said: “It was quite tough out there today; the conditions were tricky and there was only one dry line.

“Q2 was close, I had to abort my first lap because I went wide, we then did a slow lap and lost quite a bit of temperature in the tyres, the track ramped up pretty quickly so it was very close.

“The final lap in Q3 went well, we had to risk it all and to be on pole here feels great. We obviously have a very good race car and even in these tricky conditions we were able to show that again today.

“We have a gearbox penalty for the race on Sunday, last year we had more penalties and started even further back but the car is better this year, so I am still targeting a win.

“It definitely feels like a second home race, I grew up not far from here and it’s great to see so many fans. It was tough out here with the rain but everyone got stuck in and that’s great to see, so thank you very much.”

Pole position qualifier Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing (C), Second placed qualifier Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Ferrari (L) and Third placed qualifier Sergio Perez of Mexico and Oracle Red Bull Racing (R) pose for a photo in parc ferme during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Moving onto the front row with Leclerc is Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who finished in third ahead of Mercedes Lewis Hamilton.

Carlos Sainz took fifth for Ferrari beating the McLaren duo as Oscar Piastri out qualified Lando Norris with George Russell’s Mercedes back in eighth.

Aston Martin have dropped of the front and Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll complete the top ten.

In the second qualifying session AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda missed out in eleventh as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly took twelfth with teammate Esteban Ocon in fifteenth.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen took thirteenth with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas in fourteenth.

Both Williams drivers went out in the first session with Alex Albon in sixteenth and Logan Sargeant in eighteenth.

Daniel Ricciardo’s second qualifying session for AlphaTauri finished in nineteenth with Nico Hulkenberg joining him on the back row.

The Belgian Grand Prix race starts at 2pm (14:00) GMT on Sunday, July 30.

Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying

  1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) *
  2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
  3. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
  4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
  5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
  6. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
  7. Lando Norris (McLaren)
  8. George Russell (Mercedes)
  9. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
  10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
  11. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
  12. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
  13. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
  14. Vallteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
  15. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
  16. Alex Albon (Williams)
  17. Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
  18. Logan Sargeant (Williams)
  19. Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri)
  20. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)