F1 Belgian GP: Verstappen tops sprint shootout from Piastri by 0.011s

The two Ferrari drivers ended up third and fourth with Carlos Sainz ahead, while Charles Leclerc made a small error on his final Q3 lap that proved costly in the fight for pole.

The start of the session was postponed by 35 minutes because it rained heavily at the Spa track this weekend, especially in the hour leading up to the shootout qualifying.

In the third quarter, Lewis Hamilton was in the lead after the initial runs. However, some drivers, like Sergio Perez, opted for a different strategy by completing an additional warm-up lap.

The Mexican driver led the race initially but was later pushed back to eighth place. Meanwhile, Hamilton managed to improve his position to seventh on his second attempt. However, there seemed to be a miscommunication between Hamilton and his teammate George Russell, causing their Mercedes cars to hinder each other’s progress during the Eau Rouge/Raidillon sequence leading up to the Les Combes chicane.

Leclerc was a strong contender for pole position as he recorded the fastest times in the first and third sectors during his second attempt with the Q3 soft tires. However, a mistake at Turn 9 caused him to lose significant time, preventing him from surpassing Sainz’s time of 1m49.081s, which secured him third place.

Piastri delivered a remarkable performance, surpassing both contenders with a stunning late move. His exceptional time in the middle sector proved to be the key factor. However, Verstappen managed to outdo the McLaren driver with an impressive final flying lap, securing his position at the top of the grid for Saturday’s sprint race.

The Dutch driver did not achieve any fastest sectors on his last lap, but he demonstrated enough consistency to record the fastest overall time of 1m49.056s.

In Q3, Lando Norris secured sixth place for McLaren, while Pierre Gasly from Alpine also utilized the double warm-up tour strategy and finished behind him.

Esteban Ocon finished in ninth place, with Russell close behind. Russell managed to make it through Q1 and Q2, barely avoiding elimination in the 15th and 10th positions during the initial segment.

The Briton’s mistake at La Source on his final Q3 run – he locked up and ran deep – left him running ahead of Hamilton and the rest of the incident that appeared to cost the seven-time world champion a better shot on his own last effort.

Prior to this, Q2 was progressing towards its end when the focus shifted to Lance Stroll, who became the initial driver to switch from intermediate tires to slicks. The Canadian driver entered the pit to replace his inters with mediums.

He was 0.8s down on Verstappen’s segment-topping time by the end of the first sector, where most of the track did have a dry line, but when he arrived at the still-wet Turns 8 and 9 – the long, slow right hander at the bottom of the first plunge off the track’s main hill and the 90-degree left that heads towards Pouhon – it all went wrong.

Stroll, although he approached Turn 9 with great caution, unfortunately lost control of his Aston Martin. As a result, he skidded over the gravel and collided with the barriers, causing his right-front wheel to detach.

The red flags then flew and prevented any improvement, which eliminated early Q2 leader Daniel Ricciardo and the Williams pair Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant, who spun coming out of the second part of Stavelot a few minutes before Stroll’s crash, in 11th, 12th and 13th.

Both Williams drivers did not set a time. However, Albon was given a higher position because he was ahead of Sargeant, who also did not set a time. Albon’s only timed lap was affected by Stroll’s crash, as he had stayed in the garage for most of Q2.

Albon, along with Fernando Alonso in the second Aston Martin, had just started their out-laps on medium tires after waiting for a while to see if it was feasible to switch to slicks. Unfortunately, the incident happened at that moment, resulting in their elimination as well.

Stroll pitting for meant he also lacked a timed lap on the inters, but he ended up ahead of his frustrated birthday-celebrating team-mate again by dint of his starting his flying lap on the mediums while Alonso was still on his out-lap.

In the first quarter, Verstappen emerged as the fastest, with the lap times dropping by over four seconds from Hamilton’s initial time of 2m02.297s. Yuki Tsunoda managed to achieve his personal best on his last attempt but could only secure 16th place, as several other drivers improved their times behind the AlphaTauri team.

Valtteri Bottas did not fall into this category, as he completed his last lap well before the race ended. Meanwhile, the Alfa Romeo driver headed to the pits while his competitors finished the first part of the race, resulting in him only securing 17th place.

Kevin Magnussen had a unique session as the main driver for Haas. Alongside his teammate Nico Hulkenberg, they deviated from the usual strategy of continuously circulating during the 12-minute segment. Instead, they made two pit stops to switch to fresh intermediate tires.

Neither driver had a recorded time before the final laps. Unfortunately, Hulkenberg faced a delay when a jack was left near his car during his second tire change, causing him to lose a few seconds. As a result, he ran out of time and was unable to make an attempt for a fast lap.

Hulkenberg ended up behind Zhou Guanyu in the other Alfa Romeo, while Magnussen could only secure 18th place, just ahead of them, with his only timed lap. It is worth noting that Hulkenberg and Verstappen completed the same number of laps in Q1, which was 7.

In Q1, there was an incident involving Verstappen and Hamilton. Verstappen had to take a longer route to avoid Hamilton, who was driving slowly on the racing line. This incident was noted as a potential violation of impeding, but the stewards determined that no additional measures were required.