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Verstappen topped qualifying from Ferrari driver Leclerc on Friday, but Red Bull's championship leader will start from sixth after fitting a fifth gearbox of the season.

Leclerc will start ahead of Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

Verstappen had entered the qualifying session at Spa having had a fifth gearbox of the season fitted, which triggers a five-place grid penalty for the GP but does not impact his starting spot for Saturday's sprint race.

Verstappen made a better start than poleman Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who lost further spots to both McLarens of Oscar Piastri, who profited from hugging the inside of Turn 1, and Lando Norris, who drove around the outside of him at Turn 2.

Verstappen crossed the line with a whopping 33.7s lead over Lando Norris, who had to deal with a late fright from Sergio Perez for second before the Mexican was challenged by Hamilton for third at the end.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton took a surprise pole position after beating Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.003s in a tight qualifying session at the Hungaroring. 

Max Verstappen had been unbeaten in qualifying since the Monaco Grand Prix in May, but Hamilton ended that run to secure the first pole of the year for Mercedes by the slender margin of 0.003s.

Hamilton will start ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Lando Norris (McLaren) after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top 10 shootout of Q3.

With the introduction of the alternative tyre allocation for this round, limiting teams from 13 sets of tyres per weekend to 11, the teams attempted to use FP3 as preparation for each phase of qualifying. This yielded all-out times across the full range of compounds, rather than simply bolting on…

With the introduction of the alternative tyre allocation for this round, limiting teams from 13 sets of tyres per weekend to 11, the teams attempted to use FP3 as preparation for each phase of qualifying.