Belgium Qualifying: Verstappen blitzes them, Leclerc inherits pole
F1 NewsFriday, 28 July 2023 at 22:30
Max Verstappen posted the fastest time in Qualifying for the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix, but will start the race from sixth due to his gearbox penalty, promoting Charles Leclerc to pole.
Despite a shaky Q2 where the reigning Formula 1 Champion almost missed out on Q3, he went on to blow the competition away posting the fastest time by more the eighth tenths of a second.
But a five-second grid penalty for taking an extra gearbox, one more than the four allowed by the regulations, means that second fastest Charles Leclerc will start the race on Sunday from pole.
Sergio Perez was a superb third for Red Bull, as the Mexican seems to be on the path of recovering his form following a decent race in Hungary.
Verstappen who had a heated exchange with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase after almost missing out on Q3 duly apologized.
"Nice gap that. At least we had a good Q3," the Red Bull star said. "And sorry GP for being such... on the rant"
Lambiase responded cheekily: "Slowly getting used to it Max."
What the top three said
Verstappen said after Qualifying: "It was very tight. The conditions were tricky and the track was drying quickly. On my final lap in Q2 I didn't have the confidence to push more and I was very lucky to be in P10.
"In Q3 you have two tyre sets and can push a bit more, risk more and that's what we did on that final lap," he added. "I know I have to drop back on Sunday with the penalty I have, so it was the best I could do today."
Asked how he pulled out the gap in Q3, Verstappen said: "Sector 2 was still a bit damp. There was only one dry line and in some corners you had to do an alternative line. It was all about feeling confident and risking everything in that final run to get more lap time.
"We know the car was quick and even in these tricky conditions luckily we showed it again," he concluded.
Leclerc, was satisfied with his Qualifying effort, especially as he will inherit pole from the Verstappen, he commented: "Not a bad qualifying for us, especially in those conditions it's always tricky to put everything together.
"I put a lot of work in those conditions as I wasn't comfortable a few races ago and it seems to have paid off," he added.
"We went a bit too early for that last lap, pole was definitely not for us today and Max was too quick. We could have been a bit closer but we have a great starting position for Sunday.
"Q2 was really tricky. I had Kevin who hit the wall and then continued in front of me. I didn't put a lap in early and then you have all the pressure on that last lap.
"I'm happy but there is still quite a bit of work to do to catch the Red Bulls," the Monegasque concluded.
Third-placed Perez added: "It was very tricky. We started on the inters and conditions were very tricky initially.
"We thought it would get a lot drier a lot quicker but it took a long time. Even at the end of Q3 it was quite tricky in a few places like Turns 8 and 9.
"But it's a good result. It's a shame I didn't get Charles but in these conditions it was good that we had a good one," the Mexican concluded.
Q3: Leclerc inherits pole position in Belgium
Verstappen posted a 1:46.168 to go fastest in Spa, while Leclerc was 0.820s off his pace in second, but will start from the top spot in Sunday's race following his rival's grid penalty.
Perez was third fastest with a 1:47.045, 0.877s off the pace of his teammate and 0.042s ahead of Lewis Hamilton who was fourth fastest in the Mercedes.
Carlos Sainz was fifth fastest in the other Ferrari, 0.984s off the pace, while a superb Oscar Piastri was sixth in the McLaren.
While Piastri was 0.213s behind Sainz, the Australian rookie outqualified his highly rated teammate Lando Norris by 0.304s, keeping in mind the latter who was seventh fastest suffered damage on his MCL60 following an off track excursion earlier in the session.
George Russell was eighth fastest in the Mercedes with a 1:47.805 and 0.038s faster than Fernando Alonso who was ninth fastest in the Aston Martin.
Lance Stroll rounded off the top ten in the sister Aston Martin.
Q2: Verstappen makes it by the skin of his teeth
The second knockout stage of Qualifying started with the rain still not coming, as Hamilton asked the Mercedes pit wall about the weather forecast. He was informed: "It's going to be transitioning to dry very soon."
Piastri on the other hand reported: "It's not too far off slicks."
Hamilton and Russell were the first two drivers to set times, they were running Intermediate tyres, as driver kept putting in their banker laps, while a dry was starting to emerge, the crossover point closer. Hamilton's lap was soon deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 4.
Hamilton joined the track unsafely ahead of Russell and was under investigation.
Valtteri Bottas was the first driver to venture on track with slick tyres, a new set of Softs, Piastri following suit, as well as the other drivers. That was almost six minutes from the end of Q2.
Russell had a moment at Turn 1 as he lost the rear of his W14 briefly after hitting a damp patch, but kept going. While Hamilton was the last driver to get back on on Softs.
Replay showed Esteban Ocon skidding of the track and hitting the barrier and badly damaging his front wing and had to head back to the garage for repairs with no time to set another time.
Piastri lead the way into Q3 with a superb 1:51.534, 0.177s ahead of Sainz in second, while Leclerc was third fastest 0.306s behind his teammate.
Verstappen almost dropped out of Q2 and just made it into the final part of the Qualifying tenth fastest and 1.250s off the pace.
The radio exchange between Verstappen and his race engineer Lambiase was not very nice following his close call the progress into Q3.
Verstappen said: "We should have just pushed two laps in a row like I said."
"You are through Max," Lambiase responded, to which the Red Bull driver answered: "I don't give a f@ck mate that we're P10. It's just sh!t execution."
Lambiase got back: "OK then when the track was two seconds quicker for your final lap and you didn't have any energy left, how would that have gone down? You tell me what you want to do in Q3 and we will do it."
The first driver to lose out was Yuki Tsunoda, who was 11thh fastest for AlphaTauri, missing out to Verstappen by 0.364s.
Pierre Gasly was 12th fastest for Alpine, 2.137s off the pace of Piastri, with Kevin Magnussen 0.489s behind the French driver. To make things worse for Magnussen, he spun out at the end of Q2 and impeded Leclerc on his way back to the track, and was under investigation.
Valtteri Bottas was 14th fastest and Ocon was 15th, following his crash towards the end of Q2.
Q1: The sun shines through
The rain poured over Spa-Francorchamps ahead of Qualifying, but the it stopped just before the session was due to start, as race control decided to delay it by ten minutes.
Just as the cars started lining up in the pit line, the sun emerged for the first time on Friday at Spa, as Russell and Hamilton were the leading two cars itching to go in Q1.
"Bright sunshine here now at the end of the pit lane," Russell reported to his team,
"We're tracking a rain cell that is forming to the south of the circuit, potentially five minutes' away," was the response from his engineer.
Hamilton on the other hand reported an issue with his mirror asking if anyone could run down to his car and fix it, with a negative answer from the team... It's against the rules.
So with initial dry-ish conditions and rain expected on the way, that made it necessary for the drivers to enter the track as fast as possible and set a banker lap to make sure they get into Q2.
Logan Sargeant who crashed in FP1 remained in the garage as Williams were working on fixing his FW45, as a gearbox change was required.
Magnussen had his first lap deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 3, and had to go for another attempt to set a time.
Replay showed that Norris had a huge moment at Turn 16, ending up in the gravel trap, McLaren informing him that there was a front wing damage.
Verstappen was under investigation for possible impeding of Albon, but the stewards took no further action against the Dutchman.
With Q1 over, Leclerc lead the qualifiers into Q2 with a 1:58.300, 0.215s ahead of Verstappen in second, with Hamilton 0.048s further away in third.
The first driver to drop from Q1 was Alex Albon who was 16th fastest and missed out by 0.294s to Magnussen in the Haas who was 15th fastest.
Zhou Guanyu was 17th fastest in the Alfa Romeo, 0.518s behind Albon while Logan Sargeant was 18th fastest for Williams after taking part in the last minutes of Q1.
Daniel Ricciardo will line up 19th on the grid for Sunday's grid, his best lap deleted for exceeding the track limits at Turn 4.
Nico Hulkenberg who suffered from hydraulic problems on his Haas was 20th.
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