Leclerc on Belgian GP pole as Verstappen takes grid penalty

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start the Belgian Grand Prix from pole position after qualifying second fastest behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

World champion Verstappen dominated qualifying in the rain and beat Leclerc by 0.595 seconds but has a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his permitted number of engine components.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was third fastest, so will be promoted to the front row alongside Leclerc.

Lewis Hamilton will start third for Mercedes, ahead of the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Mercedes’ George Russell was seventh fastest, from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and the Alpine of Esteban Ocon.

Verstappen came to Belgium for the final race before the summer break on the back of a shaky run of form, with McLaren appearing to have seized the ascendancy in Formula 1.

But he was in imperious form on his favourite track, where he has won the past three years, and always seemed to destined to be fastest.

The conditions were tricky. The track was wet at the start of qualifying, and persistent light rain kept it that way throughout, but the weather never deteriorated to the point that the session was at risk of being stopped – the amount of spray was limited and drivers were always able to see where they were going.

“It was a nice qualifying. Luckily the weather was OK. It was raining a little bit but we could do a decent qualifying,” Verstappen said.

“Everything went well. Every tyre set I was on, we could do decent lap times. The car was working quite well in the wet. I was just able to do clean laps.

“Tomorrow is going to be a different day, warmer and no rain, so it will be about tyre degradation, I don’t know how quick we are going to be. I hope we can be in the mix to try and move forward.”

Verstappen’s domination was underlined by the fact that the gap between him and Leclerc was bigger than the margin separating the Ferrari from Russell in seventh.

But the championship leader said he was not as confident of coming back through the field as he was in the last two years, when he won from 14th in 2022 and sixth last year.

“I am not as confident as in the last two years coming back to the front,” he said. “I still see it as a damage limitation race. That’s what it is.”

Leclerc’s presence in second – and therefore on pole position thanks to Verstappen’s penalty, just as he was last year – was not expected, least of all by the man himself.

Ferrari have had a difficult run since Leclerc won the Monaco Grand Prix at the end of May, and were not expecting Spa to suit their car.

Leclerc, who snuck ahead of Perez by just 0.011secs, said: “I definitely did not expect that this weekend, but with the tricky conditions we could do something above our expectations.

“It is a good day for the team and now we need to focus on tomorrow and see what will happen when the rain is gone.”

Leclerc knows that pole is not always the best place to start in Spa because of the risk of being slipstreamed on the long run from the first corner at La Source, through the fast Eau Rouge swerves and up on the long Kemmel straight. But he says he will do his best to stay at the front.

“When I am in Eau Rouge on the first lap, I will see what is the best thing I can do, but I will try to keep that first place,” he said.

The McLarens did not show the pacesetting form of the last few races, Norris and Piastri separated by 0.046secs but 0.8secs from Verstappen’s pace.

Norris said: “Clearly we were lacking compared to the cars ahead. Especially the Red Bull, which is another level compared to us in the rain – and even in the dry they were probably still a bit stronger.

“I expected worse and I’ve not been driving particularly well. One of those days when it’s just not clicking. Similar to yesterday, to salvage P5 I was pretty happy with.”

In the wet conditions, McLaren were not helped by choosing one of the lower downforce settings of the top teams, but are confident they can fight for the win on Sunday, when it is predicted to be dry.