And with that we wrap up our Formula One live coverage for the day. Luke McLaughlin will be your man for the race tomorrow, light out at 2pm.
Here is Giles Richards’ qualifying report from Spa:
Verstappen has spoken to Sky after slipping down to fourth in Q3. On his setup for qualifying, he said: “I was hoping it would help the driving feeling bit it didn’t do that. It was a bit weird and we need to look into that. I couldn’t push, which you need to do around Spa.”
Asked about being fourth on the grid, he said: “I would have liked to start third, we felt that was our posiition today but it didn’t come together.”
As for tomorrow’s race: “In the wet it’s tricky around here. We’ll see how much rain will fall and give it our best shot.”
Norris, who looked thorough nonplussed during the sprint race earlier, said he knew he had more in the tank, even if others didn’t: “Everyone was pretty worried after yesterday, I wasn’t even that far off. I was confident coming into today, so I was happy to be back at the top.
“The car has been flying all weekend, Oscar has been doing a good job so we have been pushing each other which is good. It is a good but tough battle we are having at the moment.”
With the forecast looking wet for the race tomorrow anything could happen, but Norris would like to avoid that if possible: “I’d prefer it to stay dry to be honest - it would be nice to have a dry Sunday.”
Piastri is clearly disappointed with his P2: “The second lap was coming together really well and I just made a little mistake into 14. It’s fine margins out there. Not a bad place to be starting, but there was more in [the car] so that is disappointing.
“I felt I did an okay job today, but did not execute when it matters. Bit of a shame. I don’t know what the weather will hold tomorrow, we’ll wait and see what we get.”
Leclerc speaks to Nico Rosberg on Sky: “I’m very happy today. It is strange to say that as it is still three tenths [off] and third place but we thought we were quite far back, but that was a really, really good lap and I loved how the car felt.
“It took some time to maximise those upgrades on the car, but I have felt comfortable with the car since FP1. It is good to have a qualifying where you look back and know you left nothing on the table.”
Here’s that final top ten:
1. Norris (McLaren)
2. Piastri (McLaren)
3. Leclerc (Ferrari)
4. Verstappen (Red Bull)
5. Albon (Williams)
6. Russell (Mercedes)
7. Tsunoda (Red Bull)
8. Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
9. Lawson (Racing Bulls)
10. Bortoleto (Sauber)
Lando Norris secures pole
Leclerc goes quicker than Verstappen! Big shock there. Norris on pole as Piastri cannot better his time and Alex Albon bumps Russell down to sixth.
Updated
We’ll get Verstappen’s time first, he has a fresh set of tyres on. Will it make a difference?
Out laps underway, two minutes to go.
All cars are in the pits as they prepare to have one more go at moving up the grid.
Bortoleto sees his lap time deleted due to breaching track limits. He’s currently tenth
In the early fast laps, Norris leads Piastri from Verstappen. Leclerc fourth and Russell fifth. Six minutes left.
Q3 underway
The cars head out for the top ten shootout, we’ll know who is on pole in 12 minutes.
Bortoleto goes from out of Q1 through to Q3 thanks to Hamilton’s elimination.
So the back of the grid tomorrow will looks like this:
11. Esteban Ocon
12. Ollie Bearman
13. Pierre Gasly
14. Nico Hulkenberg
15. Carlos Sainz
16. Lewis Hamilton
17. Franco Colapinto
18. Kimi Antonelli
19. Fernando Alonso
20. Lance Stroll
End of Q2
Ocon, Bearman and Gasly also bumped out.
Hulkenberg is out but Bortoleto has gone quicker and may make it to Q3. Sainz is gone too.
Verstappen has stayed in the garage, he seems happy with his current time and is saving his tyres.
Crunch time as we tick down towards the final three minutes, all the cars out on track.
Six minutes left and Hulkenberg, Bortoloeto, Gasly, Sainz and Bearman on the bubble.
With nine minutes to go, Piastri is the first to put a big time on the board. He is currently quickest with a 1:40:626. Norris is just behind him.
Q2 session underway
A few cars, including the Red Bulls, out on the track.
Bortoleto is the man who gets a reprieve, sneaking through in 15th.
Q1 ends
We lose Hamilton, Colapinto, Antonelli, Alonso and Stroll. Hamilton thought he had made it through as he posted the seventh fastest time on his final hot lap but his time doesn’t count for a track limits violation.
This will come down to these last laps, with most drivers out on the track now. Norris and Piastri look safe, Verstappen is thrd fastest.
Three minutes to go, Russell and Antonelli in the Mercedes are yet to post a decent time. They’re both below the cut line and heading out.
Five minutes left in Q1, Norris’ new best time is a major step up from Leclerc, some sixth tenths.
Seven minutes to go, Sainz and Lawson have just posted quick times, Leclerc sits on top. Hamilton sixth fastest, he’ll need more as the usual suspects are yet to post second times.
Nine minutes to go in Q1, Piastri so far the fastest, ahead of Verstappen and Norris.
Sainz didn’t complete but Hulkenberg is out now. Race officials are going to investigate his incident with Stroll post-session.
Q1 session underway
Carlos Sainz is out on a hot lap.
No further action on the Bearman-Alonso incident.
The race directors are looking at an incident between Bearman and Fernando Alonso from the pit lane. I’ll update on that when there’s an update. Also looks like a bump with Hulkenberg and Stroll too.
We’re about three minutes away from the start of qualifying. Cars heading out shortly.
After this morning’s sprint race here the latest top six in the drivers’ championship standings:
1. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 241
2. Lando Norris (McLaren) 232
3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 173
4. George Russell (Mercedes) 147
5. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 124
6. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) 103
Hello, welcome back! Qualifying is set to get underway in about 30 minutes and after a sprint race where Verstappen looked in pretty good form, this from Giles Richards on Red Bull’s new era under Laurent Mekies is a nice primer:
I’m going to take a bit of a break now but will return at 2.30pm (UK time) to get in the buildup ahead of qualifying.
As promised, here is Giles’ report:
Giles Richards’ report from the sprint will be available for your reading pleasure shortly. At which point I will taking a bit of a pause on the blog until we all come back for qualifying later.
Leclerc seems despondent after that sprint, he tells Sky: “I don’t think there’s anything in the car that makes us think we can fight with Red Bull and McLaren, unfortunately.”
Hamiton is a bit more happy: “Positves were I didn’t spin and moved forward up the race. I learnt a lot from the upgrades we had. It’s about fine tuning it and making some changes between now and qualiying. My pace in the race not was good as sprint qualifying so we’ll have to look at that.”
Here’s a bit of driver reaction from the podium…
Norris: “Not a lot going on. It was a bit of fun at the start with Charles, where I could have postioned my self better [in turn one].”
On trying to pass Piastri and Verstappen: “I hope for a bit of battling, but Red Bull were too quick in the straight. Maybe we need to make some tweaks in qualifying.”
What is clear is that neither Norris or Piastri are big fans on the sprint races. Norris says he’s “not too fussed” about them and Piastri says the “main race is tomorrow”, which is undeniably true.
Piastri says: “I tried my best to snake my way through the straights, didn’t have enough straight line speed. It was a bit ftustrating I couldn’t get past Max.
On the downforce issue in the straights, he added: “The weather is looking bad tomorrow, so I don’t want to take off too much wing.”
Verstappen says: “It was tough to keep them behind. I couldn’t afford any mistakes, I had one tiny lock up.”
On his approach to the sprint and qualifying: “You have drive over the limit, I’m doing 15 qualifying laps to keep them behind.
“Do I feel pole is possible? Not sure. After this race we’ll have a few more ideas of what we want to do.”
Final placings from the sprint
1. Verstappen
2. Piastri
3. Norris
4. Leclerc
5. Ocon
6. Sainz
7. Bearman
8. Hadjar
9. Bortoleto
10. Lawson
11. Tsunoda
12. Russell
13. Stroll
14. Alonso
15. Hamilton
16. Albon
17. Antonelli
18. Hulkenberg
19. Colapinto
20. Gasly
Verstappen has now won two sprints at Spa, his 12th overall in the short format. We’ll have some reaction shortly.
Verstappen wins the sprint race!
The Red Bull driver moved past Piastri on the first lap of the sprint on the run to Les Combes and that was that. Norris regained his third place after dropping behind Leclerc on lap one.
Updated
Lap 15/15: Piastri isn’t going to risk it in the sprint on Les Combes. Thibault Courthois will be waving the chequered flag for Verstappen to claim eight points.
Lap 14/15: Piastri will get one more shot at passing Verstappen, but he’s not really getting close. It think this race is run.
Lap 13/15: As you were.
Lap 12/15: Verstappen is just fast enough in the straight to keep Piastri at bay. It will take an error in the early part of the track, you feel, for Verstappen to lose this one.
Lap 11/15: Verstappen is battling now. He has both McLarens on his tail and Piastri is hovering with menace. The Red Bull driver sounds concerned on the radio.
Updated
Lap 10/15: Bearman is doing well to hold off Isack Hadjar’s Racing Bull and could pick up two points in seventh.
Lap 9/15: Norris is the fastest car on the track at the moment and is moving into the DRS zone for Piastri.
Lap 8/15: Piastri is losing ground to Verstappen and Norris making use of the clean air to close in on his teammate.
Lap 7/15: Hamilton is being pursued by Antonelli. The Ferrari is struggling and Hamilton comes on the radio to say he has no rear grip.
Lap 6/15: Verstappen is holding off Piastri and may well be on for his 12th sprint win. Norris is not making much ground on the leading two but is well clear of Leclerc.
Lap 5/15: Piastri is seven tenths behind Verstappen and closer to dropping out of DRS than overtaking. Antonelli has moved up to 17th but little else happening out on the track currently.
Updated
Lap 4/15: Norris is back into third after utilising is superior speed in the turns.
Updated
Lap 3/15: Gasly is back in the sprint but two laps down, just a bit of extra practice for the Alpine. No action further up the road as of yet, Verstappen still leads.
Updated
Lap 2/15: Piastri is in touch with Verstappen but even with DRS open the McLaren is not close enough to attempt an overtake.
Updated
Lap 1/15: George Russell has also moved up a place or two from 13th and with Verstappen now leading, DRS will be opened up on the second lap so this could change again.
Updated
Light out and away we go!
Verstappen tries to go around Piastri on the outside on turn one but can’t get past, but he does one corner two! Leclerc has passed Norris too, a very poor start for the McLarens.
Updated
Formation lap underway. With Gasly out, all drivers ninth and below everyone moves up a place on the grid. Lights out next.
Sky have grabbed a quick word with Verstappen. On trying to overhaul the McLarens the Red Bull driver, who has a new leader on the pit wall at Spa, said: “It won’t be easy, they have been good all weekend, very strong especially Oscar. We have to focus on our own race and try to get the most out of it.”
Updated
There we have it, Gasly officially out of the sprint. Alpine have a few hours to get the issue sorted before qualifying.
Bad news for Gasly, his car is heading back to the Alpine garage with the engine off. He is not officially out of the sprint just yet but with 15 minutes to go to the start of the sprint the best Gasly could hope for is starting from the pit lane, where teammate Franco Colapinto will also be heading out from. Apparently it’s a water leak issue for Gasly.
There is some concern about Pierre Gasly after the Alpine summoned him to the pits while other are out on the track. Crofty was stalking the car as it was being pushed back out on track on the Sky coverage, no concrete information on what that was about yet. Hopefully nothing major for Gasly, who has a chance to score from eigth on the grid.
Preamble
British drivers have dominated the sprint races so far this season, with two previous edition being won by Lewis Hamilton (China) and Lando Norris (Miami), but the chances of that run being extended this morning are not high. Norris will start third on the grid, behind teammate Oscar Piastri, who is on pole, and Max Verstappen. Norris has a very slim chance of pulling level with Piastri at the top of the drivers’ standings qualifying should he overcome the odds, win the sprint and see Piatri fail to score. In all likelihood, Piastri will start this afternoon’s qualifying with a small increase in his lead there.
Hamilton is all the way down in 18th after an error in sprint qualifying yesterday saw him fail to make it out of the first session. Oliver Bearman, who qualified in seventh for Haas, has a better chance of extending the British run of sprint winners this season than the Ferrari driver.
The sprint race has had little correlation with either qualifying or the Grand Prix winner this season, so trying to read too much into it is misguided but hopefully it’s a nice little amuse-bouche to the action to come. What was clear from yesterday’s qualifying is that the McLaren are quickest on the corners, with Piastri and Norris ahead of Verstappen in the bendy sector two, so if the Briton can find a bit more speed in the straighter sections he has every chance of bettering the Red Bull.
That said, it could well be that we have a 15-laps of smoke and mirrors. We’ll find out soon.
