Lando Norris has always maintained confidence in his abilities even as the season has ebbed and flowed, a point he felt he made definitively in claiming pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix. While Norris soared Lewis Hamilton was left bereft, offering only apologies to his team for an “unacceptable” error that left him languishing in 16th place here.
Norris took pole with a storming lap to edge out his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, by the slenderest of margins – 0.085sec – on the challenging circuit in the Ardennes mountains that rewards commitment and precision. Charles Leclerc did well to put his Ferrari into third, while Max Verstappen, having won the sprint race earlier in the day, claimed fourth for Red Bull.
Belgian Grand Prix grid positions after qualifying
1 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1min 40.562secs
2 Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:40.647
3 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:40.900
4 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:40.903
5 Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:41.201
6 George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:41.260
7 Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) Red Bull 1:41.284
8 Isack Hadjar (Fra) RB 1:41.310
9 Liam Lawson (Nzl) RB 1:41.328
10 Gabriel Bortoleto (Bra) Kick Sauber 1:42.387
11 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Haas F1 1:41.525
12 Oliver Bearman (Gbr) Haas F1 1:41.617
13 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:41.633
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Kick Sauber 1:41.707
15 Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spa) Williams 1:41.758
16 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Ferrari 1:41.939
17 Franco Colapinto (Arg) Alpine 1:42.022
18 Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Ita) Mercedes GP 1:42.139
19 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:42.385
20 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:42.502
Hamilton has won here five times, but has had a trying meeting and suffered more in qualifying. His final lap in Q1, enough for seventh place, was deleted for going beyond track limits at Raidillon and he was knocked out, having finished 15th in the sprint.
“Definitely a weekend to forget,” he said. “I’ve got to look internally and apologise to the team because it’s unacceptable to be out in Q1, it’s [a] very, very poor performance.”
Norris on the other hand, was in a feisty mood after his glorious run. He had finished third behind Verstappen and Piastri in the sprint, dropping a point to his teammate, who now leads the world championship by nine points. Norris had qualified third, six-tenths behind Piastri for the sprint, with some suggesting Norris could not match the Australian, to which he felt he had delivered a strong rebuke.
“Three-tenths is just slipstream and not being the first out of the pit lane,” he said. “It was nothing to worry about but people like to make a lot of things up. I felt good and the car has been flying all weekend.
“Oscar has been doing a good job and we’ve been pushing each other a lot. It’s tough because you see where your strengths and weaknesses are clearly and you learn from each other quickly, it’s good but a tough battle that we have at the minute.”
It was on the first of the hot laps in Q3 that Norris set the pace through the middle sector to lead with a time of 1min 40.562sec, two-tenths up on Piastri with Verstappen half a second back in third. While Verstappen went out first for the final runs, he could not improve and Norris could do no better, but Piastri was flying and threw himself at the lap. He did go quicker but it was not quite enough to beat his teammate, as Norris held pole.
For Red Bull, as openings go Laurent Mekies could not have asked for a more auspicious affair on the occasion of his debut weekend in charge. As the team enters a new era, their first race without the dismissed Christian Horner, Verstappen, around whom so much of the power politicking within the team has swirled, ensured Mekies at least began on a high with a win in the sprint race on Saturday morning.
With rain forecast for Sunday, Red Bull had opted to fit their larger rear wing for qualifying rather than the low drag version they had used for the sprint race, costing Verstappen some of the straightline speed that had proved so advantageous in the short form race.
However, the upgrades Red Bull brought to the race represented a step forward and did seem to work, with Yuki Tsunoda showing an improvement on his recent efforts when they were applied to his car for qualifying and the Japanese driver returned seventh place, his best result since joining Red Bull.
Verstappen had scored the sprint victory with a steely and opportunistic drive. Having taken the lead on the opening lap he beat Piastri and Norris into second and third, with Leclerc in fourth.
For Red Bull and Mekies, it was the start they needed. Verstappen was decisive and audacious, taking his one chance clinically. With the McLaren taking time to come up to speed on the first lap, he pounced. Taking a slipstream behind Piastri on the Kemmel straight he went into the lead at Les Combes and while the Australian was quicker through the twisty part of the second sector, he did not have enough to overcome Verstappen’s track position advantage, which he held to the flag.
