The Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull) took pole position for the Belgian GP in Formula 1 by registering a magnificent turn in the rain at more than seven kilometers of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, although he will give up first place on the grid this Sunday to the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), since a penalty for changing its power unit forced it to penalize ten positions.
Verstappen allied himself with the humidity of the last ‘chicane’, completed a lap with six and a half minutes remaining and then let time pass while all his rivals, including the British Lando Norris (McLaren), they tried everything to improve their record, although they could do nothing.
With a time of one minute, 53 seconds and 159 thousandths, he was almost six tenths ahead of Leclerc and 606 thousandths ahead of the Mexican ‘Checo’ Pérez (Red Bull), who dispelled doubts and finished third to start this Sunday second, in first grill line.
“With a little luck maybe I can still stand up to the McLarens,” said Verstappen, who analyzed: “We have to be fast in the dry. It’s going to be complicated, but we’ll try. We hope to fight with the Ferraris and the Mercedes and with a With a little luck, maybe we can stand up to the McLarens.
The Dutchman stressed that the team itself is “complicating their lives” to maintain the lead in the World Championship, although he stressed that it was a good qualifying session in which they knew how to choose the tires, which went well on one lap.
“Tomorrow will be a matter of tire degradation. We will have to be good with them and we start ten positions behind, although it is the best position we could have today”explained Verstappen, who hopes to “be in the battle to try to come back” by managing tires and “surviving” the start.
For his part, the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) will start seventh – he finished eighth in the classification -, finishing more than one second and three tenths behind Verstappen and will have ahead of the British George Russell (Mercedes) and the McLarens, in addition to the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who will start third.
Also Spanish, Fernando Alonso will be eighth, after finishing ninth in the classification and surpassing Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine).
At no time did the rain stop on the Belgian circuit, but Verstappen took advantage of the indecision of the other drivers to go out with everything in a first session with which he flew over Spa-Francorchamps, the same circuit in which he has achieved three victories in his last three visits.
He gained six tenths on Pérez, who until then had been the best, and began to enjoy the fact that the drops of water fell with more intensity from that moment on, especially in the third sector, in which the renewed asphalt of the ‘ chicane’ of what is known as the ‘bus stop’ suffered from humidity and prevented the drivers from taking more risks than necessary.
Leclerc returns; McLaren step back in the rain
The Monegasque was the only one to pull magic out of the hat when everything seemed controlled by the Red Bulls. Although he finished almost six tenths behind Verstappen, he achieved an impeccable turn on the wheel, avoided countersteering and took the car on ‘rails’ to achieve a second place that tastes like a victory due to Verstappen’s penalty, who arrived at Spa aware that he would have than getting out of the top ten.
Leclerc is, without a doubt, the positive note of these last two weeks. After four grand prix in which he found himself far from the top positions after a consistent start that made Red Bull dream of fighting for the lead, ‘il predestinato’ achieved a consistent fourth place last weekend in Hungary and his first place for this Sunday’s start pushes him to fight for victory.
The same will not happen to the McLarens. Despite proving to be the best in the dry, as they exhibited in the second round of free practice this Friday, the rain did not favor them and they could not go beyond fifth position -Norris will start fourth despite qualifying fifth and the Australian Oscar Piastri will start fifth after being sixth – on this strange Saturday, in which the rain was, perhaps, too timid.
Behind them and Russell will be Sainz who could not improve his teammate’s time and will start ahead of Fernando Alonso who tried everything again, but whose car remains far from the first four cars.
For his part, Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) will be fifteenth in this Sunday’s race, in which Pérez is in a favorable situation to vindicate himself internally and externally after a hesitant start.
He will have the opportunity to get on top of Leclerc in a start that Verstappen will have to ensure to put on his overalls and start overtaking to try to finish, at least, in the top five in one of the circuits where there are the most possibilities of overtaking in the championship.