F1 Belgian GP: Max Verstappen fastest in qualifying but pole position goes to Carlos Sainz
F1 championship leader Verstappen was untouchable in qualifying, but the Red Bull driver wil꧃l take a grid penalty for changing his engine and start 15th.
꧂In total, seven drivers wilಞl drop down the order for Sunday’s grand prix, making for a highly unusual qualifying session.
Verstappen’s blistering lap left him more 0.632s clear of Sainz, who f💎ailed to improve on his final run in Q3 after dipping his wheels into the gravel, though the Spaniard will still take pole.
Sergio Perez was🎉 third-quickest but will move up to the front-row of the grid for Sunday’s grand prix at Spa-Francorcha🔜mps.
Charles Leclerc ended up fourth but also has a grid penalty for exceeding his power unit allocation and will therefore drop to 16th, directl𒉰y behind his title rival.
Fernando Alonso will line up third despite being outp🧔aced by penalised Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon, and will be joined on the second row by former McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The seven-time world champion was left shocked to end up 1.8s off the pace of Verstappen as he qualified sevꦬenth, ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell.
A superb perform🤪ance from Alex Albon saw the Anglo-Thai driver make it into Q3 for the first time this season. ♔Albon was ninth-quickest but will line-up from sixth on the grid.
McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo qꦡualified 11th but will start frꦏom seventh due to a host of penalties for drivers changing engine components.
Also startin♛g the race inside the top 10 are AlphaTauri’s Pierꦜre Gasly, who was 12th-quickest, and Aston Martin pair Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, despite the latter setting the 16th-slowest time.
Williams’ Nicholas Latifi 💞will line-up 11th, ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, who will be the highest-placed penalised 𓃲driver in 14th.
Behind Verstappen and Leclerc, Ocon and McLaren’s Lando Norris wi🎉ll start 17th and 18th after their respective engine penalties are applied.
Guanyu Zhou and Mick Schumacher will share the back row for Alfa Romeo and Haas respectively due to the⛄ir grid penalties.
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