Max Verstappen’s dominance continues as he secures pole position ahead of the Sprint Race at this weekend’s Belgian GP.
Having topped all sessions at the Sprint Shootout, pole belonged to one man only, Max Verstappen. He will be joined on the front row by Oscar Piastri at the Sprint Race later today.
The start of the Sprint Shooutout was delayed by 35 minutes due to rain that finally stopped before the session went underway.
In SQ1, the drivers went out on the track on inters. With the track drying out, times were gradually getting faster.
Max Verstappen was showing blistering pace throughout the entire session, as he topped the timesheets every time he did a fast lap.
With 2 minutes to go, Lando Norris who has shown great pace throughout the weekend so far found himself in the bottom 5, along with Lance Stroll, Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg. Who would be knocked out though was still to be decided, as every driver was out on the track ready to do their best to carry themselves into the next session. Nico Hulkenburg however didn’t make it to the start line before time run out, and will now start the Sprint Race later today in P20.
George Russell of Mercedes made an error in his last flying lap that cost him time, but he made it through into SQ2 by 9 hundreds of a second.
Drivers knocked out in SQ1
- Yuki Tsunoda
- Valtteri Bottas
- Kevin Magnessun
- Zhou Guanyu
- Nico Hulkenberg
The track was much drier for SQ2, and all drivers that were out on the track had inters, but it was looking like it would be the first session of the day where slicks would be eventually used. Some parts of the track were still tricky and wet, with drivers having to be careful on their inters. Logan Sargeant had a moment in sector 3 but was able to get himself back out on track safely.
Lance Stroll made the bold decision to put mediums on with 2 minutes to go, but was already out on the radio saying that “it’s too early.” But having already committed to it, he had to set his flying lap with the slick tyres, having been too late to go back into the pits. His lap ended prematurely though as he went off into the gravel and into the barriers. The session was red-flagged and not resumed.
Aston Martin having made the gamble didn’t only lose out with Lance crashing out, but with his teammate Fernando Alonso too who now couldn’t complete a flying lap to get him through to the next round.
Drivers knocked out in SQ2
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Alex Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lance Stroll
- Fernando Alonso
With SQ3 being the shortest session, all the drivers came out on track with the soft tyres.
Lewis Hamilton had provisional pole with 2 minutes to go, with Max Verstappen’s fast lap being 8 hundreds of a second slower than the 7-time World Champion. Sergio Perez crossed the line shortly after to snatch provisional pole from Lewis by 8 tenths.
The track was only getting faster, and the fight for pole was on, with multiple drivers enjoying being provisional pole momentarily. Oscar Piastri could have taken pole, but Max Verstappen crossed the line 11 milliseconds ahead of the Aussie to take away his hopes for a maiden pole position in his maiden season.
Final classification after SQ3
- Max Verstappen
- Oscar Piastri
- Carlos Sainz
- Charles Leclerc
- Lando Norris
- Pierre Gasly
- Lewis Hamilton
- Sergio Perez
- Esteban Ocon
- George Russell
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Alex Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lance Stroll
- Fernando Alonso
- Yuki Tsunoda
- Valtteri Bottas
- Kevin Magnessun
- Zhou Guanyu
- Nico Hulkenberg
