Verstappen fastest in Qualifying at Spa, Leclerc will start from Pole

Max Verstappen has won Friday's Qualifying in changeable conditions with a 1:46.168, but he will not start from Pole on Sunday thanks to his five-place grid penalty. As a result, Charles Leclerc will line up in P1 on the grid, and Sergio Perez will start alongside the Ferrari driver, as the Mexican finished third.

Softs were the tyres to use in the final session of the day on a drying track, and after the first set of runs, Charles Leclerc was on provisional Pole Position. By the end of the session, the Monegasque driver was beaten by Max Verstappen, but thanks to the Dutchman's grid penalty, he will start from P1 in Sunday's race. Sergio Perez finished in P3, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz. The aforementioned three drivers will all gain a place just like Leclerc.

The two McLarens finished in P6 and P7 respectively, with Oscar Piastri beating Lando Norris after the Briton likely damaged his car in Q1. As a result, Verstappen will start from in between the two McLaren drivers. George Russell will start from P8, while the two Aston Martins finished in the last two places in Q3 in the order of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Q2

In Q2, the drivers continued on the intermediate tyres, but the crossover period was near. The teams decided to eventually opt for the soft tyres with six minutes to go in the session. In tricky conditions, Esteban Ocon hit the wall Turn 9, and broke his front wing and could not improve. Later on, Kevin Magnussen also went wide in the same corner and his rear wing touched the wall.

With two minutes to go, the softs were finally faster than the intermediates, and as a result, Q2 became a one-shot qualifying session. Verstappen was on the edge of getting knocked out, as he finished in P10, and while Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly all had the chance, but they could not eliminate the defending champion.

OUT - P15 Ocon, P14 Bottas, P13 Magnussen, P12 Gasly, P11 Tsunoda

Q1

The first qualifying session got underway after a 10-minute delay, with the first drivers coming out using intermediate tyres in sunny conditions, but on a wet track. Lando Norris came closest to crashing out, losing the back of his car in Paul Frere, but it seemed like he only had to change his front wing.

Most drivers could improve on their final laps, with both Alonso and Leclerc finding themselves in the bottom five once the chequered flag was waved. However, both of them could improve, and the Ferrari driver eventually topped the session. Daniel Ricciardo could have qualified for Q2, but his lap time was deleted for running wide in Raidillon. The Australian was knocked out alongside Nico Hulkenberg, Guanyu Zhou, and the two Williams.

OUT - P20 Hulkenberg, P19 Ricciardo, P18 Sargeant, P17 Zhou, P16 Albon