SPA FRANCORCHAMPS: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday, where Red Bull’s Formula One champion Max Verstappen posted the fastest time in wet conditions but is on a 10-place grid penalty for taking on a fifth engine.

Drivers’ championship leader and three-time world champion Verstappen will start 11th on the grid on Sunday, after Red Bull decided to take the penalty at Spa which can be an easier track for overtaking, as he goes for a fourth straight win in Belgium.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, under pressure of late after a run of poor performances, will be alongside Leclerc on the front row, with Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes third on the grid and McLaren’s Lando Norris making up the second row.

“I definitely did not expect that this weekend, with the tricky conditions, to do something above our expectations,” Leclerc said.

“We need to focus on tomorrow and what will happen when the rain is gone. Without the rain, P5 was the position we were fighting for with the Mercedes. The rain helped us, but I’m not going to complain.”

Norris is second in the championship, 76 points behind Verstappen, and will see this as another great chance to close the gap, especially in the expected drier conditions.

It turned out to be a repeat of last year’s qualifying at Spa, where Verstappen was also fastest but dropped to sixth on the grid with another penalty, and Leclerc took advantage by grabbing pole position.

This time around, Versta­ppen set a time of one minute 53.159 seconds, which nobody could beat, but Leclerc, 0.595 seconds slower, will be the man at the front of the grid.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who won his first F1 Grand Prix last weekend in Hungary, begins fifth with George Russell sixth in the Mercedes.

Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz will start seventh on the grid and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso eighth, with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon ninth, and Alexander Albon of Williams 10th.

The rain meant the earlier final practice was more or less a wash-out, with little driving done and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll crashing early on, but qualifying began in slightly improved conditions.

Stroll’s team had plenty of work to do before qualifying after they were forced to change everything except the survival cell, and he failed to make the final phase of qualifying.

Verstappen won here in 2022 from 14th on the grid, and last year from sixth, but after the impressive form of McLaren last weekend in their one-two in Hungary, and with Leclerc on pole, the championship leader has a real battle on his hands.

Leclerc has had only one other pole position this season, at Monaco, but that also gave him his only win this term and Verstappen is in real danger of failing to win for a fourth successive GP, something that has not happened since 2020.

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

“Tomorrow is a different day, warmer, no rain. It’s all about tyre degradation. I don’t know how quick we’ll be, but I hope we can be in the mix.”

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2024