Red Bull’s Max Verstappen qualified for the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix, but Carlos Sainz will start on pole for Ferrari after grid penalties came into play at Spa-Francorchamps.
With seven drivers (Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher and Valtteri Bottas) carrying grid penalties, the rest of the field were basically jostling for the top 13 spots on the grid.
As a result, Sainz’s poor Q3 lap for P2 will see him go first ahead of Sergio Perez, while Verstappen and Leclerc will drop to P15 and P16 respectively after qualifying P1 and P4 overall.
Ocon qualified fifth ahead of Fernando Alonso in sixth for Alpine, but the Frenchman will finish behind Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton took 7th ahead of Mercedes team-mate George Russell, while Alex Albon reached Q3 for the first time this season and qualified in a provisional ninth position.
Of course, those four drivers will move up three places each, while 10th-ranked Lando Norris will start 18th on the grid.
1 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing 1:43.665 2 Carlos Sainz SAI Ferrari 1:44.297 3 Sergio Perez PER Red Bull Racing 1:44.462 4 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari 1:44.553 5 Esteban Ocon OCO Alpine 1:45.180
Daniel Ricciardo missed out on the top 10 by finishing 11th for McLaren in Q2, while Pierre Gasly finished 12th for AlphaTauri. Zhou Guanyu, Lance Stroll and Mick Schumacher were eliminated from Q2 from P13 to P15 respectively. However, penalties for the others will see Ricciardo, Gasly and Stroll start in the top 10 on Sunday, with Zhou and Schumacher starting on the back row.
Q1 was delayed by 25 minutes, and when the session began it was Verstappen who set the benchmark ahead of Sainz and Perez as Sebastian Vettel was eliminated in 16th by 0.002 seconds, followed by Williams’ Nicholas Latifi in 17th place, this pair had to be promoted. in a respective P10 and P11 on the grid.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen finished 18th due to a lock-up at Turn 8, Yuki Tsunoda was next in 19th after closing hard at the final chicane and Valtteri Bottas completed the qualifying in 20th . This trio will move up to P12, P13 and P14 respectively for Sunday’s race.
Qualifying highlights: Belgian Grand Prix
HOW IT HAPPENED
Q1: Verstappen sets the pace in one take
The penalties on the grid became the Spa-Francorchamps paddock on Friday and Saturday. Those hit with back-of-the-grid penalties for the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix are: FP2 leader Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris, Ocon, Zhou and Schumacher. Meanwhile, Bottas has 20 penalty places for his component choices.
Sainz and Pérez would therefore have a great chance for pole as two of the 13 drivers expected no penalties for Sunday’s Grand Prix, but all would have to wait as Q1 was delayed by 25 minutes due to a crash in the Porsche Supercup and subsequent repairs.
However, it was Verstappen who proved the driver to beat in Q1 as he set an early target of 1m 44.581s, Sainz dropped to P2 by 0.469s and Pérez third by 0.796s to leave Leclerc almost a second away in P4, with Stroll, Latifi, Schumacher and the two Alfa Romeos in the provisional drop zone.
Verstappen followed the pace in Q1
Mercedes struggled to warm up the tires and started Q1 with a flying two effort that saw Russell move into 10th and Hamilton 11th. There was still time for the entire field to improve, although neither the Red Bulls nor the Ferraris went out for a second run.
With the rain reported through Eau Rouge, Russell completed the top five by 1.069s with Albon sixth to split the Mercedes while Hamilton took 7th. This left Norris eighth – Ricciardo dropped to P13 due to a track boundary infringement.
Ocon finished just ahead of Alonso as Alpine took 9th and 10th, leaving Gasly 12th.
Stroll finished 14th, Schumacher a tenth back in 15th, as Vettel was eliminated from Q1 by a margin of 0.002 seconds over his compatriot. Latifi and Magnussen were next on the board as they missed Q2, the Haas driver locking up at Turn 8.
Alfa Romeo Bottas’ run of 148 Q1 progressions ended when he was knocked out in 20th place, behind Tsunoda, who stalled at the final chicane to finish P19 for AlphaTauri.
Knocked out: Vettel, Latifi, Magnussen, Tsunoda, Bottas
Despite finishing 20th, Bottas will start 14th on Sunday
Q2: Leclerc leads the Red Bulls as Albon passes
Verstappen came out swinging in Q2 with a time of 1m 44.723s, team-mate Pérez just 0.071s off his effort, while Sainz was six tenths further back in P3 and team-mate Leclerc to be sixth fastest after reporting that his car was. “jumping like a madman at the top of the slow turns”.
Ricciardo was 15th after the first few runs without setting a time, joining Albon, then Zhou, Stroll and Schumacher in the provisional drop zone.
As Ricciardo emerged he was towed by McLaren counterpart Norris – Alpine following suit with Ocon towing Alonso down the Kemmel straight. Meanwhile, Red Bull decides to give up another race.
Leclerc eventually jumped into P1 with a time of 1m 44.551s, leaving Verstappen second by 0.172s and Perez 0.243s back in P3. Sainz finished fourth in Q2, 0.867s off the pace after also deciding against another race, while Hamilton took fifth and Russell sixth.
Ocon finished eighth and towed Alonso to ninth in his second run, while McLaren echoed Alpine’s teamwork with Norris in ninth by towing Ricciardo, but the Australian could only finish 11th and he missed Q3 by a tenth of a second.
It was Williams’ Alex Albon who finished 10th in Q2, breaking into the top 10 for the first time this season and securing at least sixth place on the grid.
Knocked out: Ricciardo, Gasly, Zhou, Stroll, Schumacher
Albon secured at least P6 by reaching Q3
Q3 – Verstappen puts on a show but Sainz secures pole
Verstappen, Ocon, Norris and Leclerc were the four drivers in Q3 to drop to the back of the grid. Despite this, the Dutchman was first with his first flying lap, with a time of 1m 43.665s which put him six tenths ahead of Sainz in P2.
“Wait, what are those tires?!” came a bewildered radio message from Leclerc as he exited the top 10 shootout. Anticipating penalties, he would tow Sainz to help the Spaniard fight for pole, but the team had mistakenly stuck the wrong set of softs on the Monegasque.
Meanwhile, Pérez had his lap for P3 flagged by the track limits, and Leclerc completed his lap to take third despite tire confusion.
Coming into the second heats, Verstappen decided to stay at the bottom of the classification as the fastest man on the track, while Leclerc went out only to tow his team-mate through Raidillon and the Kemmel straight. The execution could have been lacking as Sainz lost three tenths in the first sector alone, throwing gravel to lose even more time in Sector 2. It didn’t improve.
However, neither did the top four, and while it was a qualifying win for Red Bull, Sainz would start on pole position after taking second place in Q3 – joined by Pérez on the front row, while Verstappen would drop to 15th and Leclerc to 16th for Sunday’s race. .
Although Ocon completed the top five, he will start 17th, while sixth-placed Alonso is third on the grid. Hamilton will join Alonso on the second row after qualifying seventh ahead of Mercedes team-mate Russell, with Albon starting the race in sixth after finishing ninth on Saturday.
Rounding out the top 10 in Q3, Norris will start 18th behind Ocon.
Leclerc will start behind Verstappen for the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix
key quote
“It was good. Happy to start on pole. Obviously not happy to see the gap with Max this weekend and the gap Red Bull has on us. We have to keep looking to see why Red Bull is so fast in this track and why we’re behind them, but starting from pole is a good place to start and we’ll try to win from there tomorrow” -…