#BelgianGP Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen pips @GeorgeRussell63 to pole. #F1

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen pipped Williams Racing’s George Russell to claim pole position in a wet and wild qualifying at the Belgian GP with championship leader Lewis Hamilton third in his Mercedes.

 

 

Rain intensifying ahead of the final qualifying stage meant in these tricky conditions, drivers needed to switch back to full wets, after the intermediates were the right tyre of choice in Q1 and Q2.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris who posted the quickest times in Q1 and Q2, reported aqua-planing on on his Q3 out-lap, where Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, following behind the MCL35M, called for the session to be red flagged.

 

After Russell lead the pack in the opening tours of the top ten shootout, Norris’s correction to a slight snap of oversteer through the second sequence of Eau Rouge send his MCL35M spearing left and side-on into the barrier just before Raidillon and the top of the hill.

 

The impact saw two wheels ripped off and damaged all four corners of the McLaren, which bounced off the barriers and spun around wildly a few times before coming to a halt in the run-off area beyond Raidillon.

 

After Vettel stopped to see if Norris was ok, the Briton was able to climb out of his MCL35M racer and the session was suspended for over 40 minutes after the wreckage was cleared away and then the FIA assessed the conditions for Q3 to resume.

 

When it did, Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon and Russell lead the pack on the blue-branded full wets, but they pitted at the end of their out-laps to join the rest of the runners in the final qualifying segment on intermediates.

 

Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas therefore registered the first timed laps of the third qualifying stage, with Hamilton leading after the initial Q3 runs had been completed with a 2:01.552, whilst Verstappen slotted in almost a second off his championship rival at this part of proceedings.

 

On the final flyers, Russell, who had only completed one first timed effort in Q3 and gone ninth fastest, remained on it for another hot-lap and stunned the field by setting at that time the best sectors of the final qualifying segment in the first two sectors of the tour.

 

Russell blasted to provisional pole, whilst Hamilton, who was behind the Mercedes junior, could not beat his fellow British-compatriot and ended up 0.013 seconds adrift.

 

But Verstappen still had to complete his flyer and quickest Q3 time in the second sector, along with personal best in the other two, meant the Dutchman snuck onto pole position at the final moment with a 1:59.765 – with the Red Bull driver the only one to get under the 2 minute bracket in the final stage of qualifying.

 

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo qualified in fourth, in-front of Vettel and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, whilst Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who had been second quickest once all drivers completed their intial runs in Q3, took seventh – Perez the only driver of the top ten runners not to set a personal best effort on his better Q3 lap.

 

Bottas wound up eighth, but will start five places back due to his grid penalty for causing the crash at the front of the field at turn one on the opening lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

 

Ocon qualified ninth, with Norris tenth but possibly facing a grid place drop if repairs on his Mercedes-powered MCL35M racer means taking new power-unit components or starting from the pits.

 

In the second qualifying stage, it was mostly about the Mercedes drivers needing to pit twice for a fresh set of intermediate rubber after being sent out on a used set of the green side-walled compound.

 

This put them out of sync compared to the other drivers and meant both spent most of their session near the bottom of the time-sheets and were sitting in 11th and 12th place ahead of their final flyers.

 

But after stopping for a fresh set of inters – their third in qualifying – Hamilton and Bottas improved enough to progress through safely.

 

Behind them, Ricciardo’s late improvement eliminated Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – with the Monegasque-youngster unable to better his personal bests in the middle and final sectors of his hot-lap.

 

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi scored his best F1 qualifying of 12th – after being demoted back by others improving late on in Q2, but the Canadian did post a personal best effort on his final flying lap – along with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso who was 14th.

 

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz qualified ahead of his fellow Spanish-compatriot Alonso in 13th, as Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll missed out on posting a final Q2 flyer and could not complete an out-lap in time.

 

Like Bottas, Stroll also will be relegated five places for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix for causing the second clash at last round’s Hungarian GP.

 

In Q1, the session was delayed for 12 minutes due to the FIA assessing how wet the conditions were around the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps following the rain ahead of qualifying.

 

When the session went green, the Williams drivers emerged on the intermediates leading the pack out.

 

Although Latifi spun out at the Fanges Chicane on his first hot-lap, going round on the soaked, puddle-filled grass  – the Williams duo proved that the intermediates were the better tyre to be on and the other 18 drivers followed suit switching their full wets for a set of the green-marked intermediates after completing their initial flyers.

 

Russell and Latifi were shuffled down the classification as their fellow competitors found time with every lap they ran as the track continued to improve, despite the threat of rain looming at Spa.

 

Although several drivers including – Ricciardo, Alonso and Hungarian Grand Prix winner Ocon were under-pressure near the end of the first qualifying stage – personal best efforts on their final runs from Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda were not enough for the pairing to progress into Q2.

 

Giovinazzi and Tsunoda were 16th and 17th respectively, whilst Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher was 18th despite not completing his quickest time on his final Q1 hot-lap.

 

The other Alfa Romeo C41 of Kimi Raikkonen set his best effort at the end of Q1, but the 2007 world champion qualified a low 19th and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin who brought up the rear.

 

You can read the full Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1074/belgium/qualifying.html

 

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2021 Belgian GP Qualifying – The Top Three

 

 

Belgian GP Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B, 1:57.765:

“When we switched to the intermediate – they couldn’t handle a lot of water so it was quite tricky. Just happy to have a qualifying like this after the break.”

 

2nd Place – George Russell, #63, Williams Racing-Mercedes, FW43B, +0.321:

“I thought we did well to get out of Q1 and then we end up on the front row. We had nothing to lose, tomorrow’s the important one so let’s go out there and score some points.”

 

3rd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance, +0.334:

“It’s been a very difficult day for everyone, just tried to stay positive and calm. My first lap was really good, my second one ummm… Well done to Max and to George. If it’s like this tomorrow it’s going to be tricky to balance straight line speed and downforce. Tomorrow is another day.”

 

In the earlier FP3 session it was a Red Bull one-two with Verstappen topping the time-sheets ahead of team-mate Perez with championship leader Hamilton third, Norris fourth and Ocon completing the top five. You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1074/belgium/practice-3.html

 

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