F1 Belgian GP live commentary and updates - race day

F1 Belgian Grand Prix coming up!

Rain? In Belgium? It'll never catch on.

A downpour seems to be in the offing - rain is expected around the start of the race, making it very difficult to prepare for. 

How heavy? Will it be like 2021? Or will it be just one drop? We'll find out very soon.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Erik Junius

Belgian GP qualifying recap

Q1: Kimi Antonelli is one of two higher-profile departures in the opening stage of qualifying; Lewis Hamilton initially bumps Gabriel Bortoleto out, but has his laptime deleted for track limits.

Q2: Ollie Bearman blames traffic, in the shape of Yuki Tsunoda, on his inability to break out of Q2. Both Haases, Gasly, Sainz, and Hulkenberg drop out.

Q3: Lando Norris sets a time good enough for pole on his first run, and he doesn't improve on his second. Oscar Piastri reckons a mistake at Stavelot costs him a shot at pole, as Charles Leclerc pips Max Verstappen to third on the grid.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

Starting grid, plus pitlane starts

Sainz, Hamilton, Antonelli, and Alonso have all given up their places on the grid to take pitlane starts - presumably to set their cars up for wet weather.

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Time	Tyres	km/h
1	L. Norris McLaren	4		McLaren	Mercedes	1'40.562		250.734
2	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	+0.085 1'40.647		250.523
3	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari	+0.338 1'40.900		249.894
4	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	+0.341 1'40.903		249.887
5	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	+0.639 1'41.201		249.151
6	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	+0.698 1'41.260		249.006
7	Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing	22		Red Bull	Red Bull	+0.722 1'41.284		248.947
8	I. Hadjar RB	6		RB	Honda	+0.748 1'41.310		248.883
9	L. Lawson RB	30		RB	Honda	+0.766 1'41.328		248.839
10	G. Bortoleto Sauber	5		Sauber	Ferrari	+1.825 1'42.387		246.265
View full results

11. Ocon, 12. Bearman, 13. Gasly, 14. Hulkenberg, 15. Colapinto, 16. Stroll. 
PITLANE START: Sainz, Hamilton, Antonelli, Alonso.

Belgian GP image gallery

Want the best snaps from the day? Click here to check out today's gallery, which will be updated throughout the race.

It's wet, but no indications of any delays so far from the race control messages - although we will have the formation lap behind the safety car. 

That may mean we get a few laps of running like this until the circuit's at least in reasonable shape to drive.

Tyre watch

...it's intermediates for everyone, as expected. Nobody likes the wet tyre.

It's the age-old conundrum isn't it - visibility is quite poor and the standing water makes it tricky here, but equally we want to see some racing. 

We're apparently in a gap between rain showers, and it's not raining now - so why not get going? Norris reports the standing water isn't too bad.

"Expecting heavy rain in nine minutes," Albon is told. The approach is to wait for this next rain cell to pass and then hopefully get the show on the road. 

The three-hour clock has been started, with the actual start of the race yet to start the secondary two-hour clock.

Lando Norris is told by McLaren engineer Will Joseph that the team is expecting a 30-40 minute delay before action can resume. 

Pierre Gasly spotted wearing his Anthoine Hubert tribute cap in the garage. I was given a similar one (one of his official Renault junior kit allowances) back in late '19 by former Arden team manager Kenny Kirwan, for whom Anthoine drove in F2 that year.

Back in the day when I did PR bits for F2 and GP3 (as-was), Anthoine was the first GP3 driver I interviewed. Lovely bloke. Much missed.

Points allocation in the event of shortened running

No points will be awarded today unless we get a minimum of two green flag laps in. This was voted through ahead of the 2022 season as a response to Spa 2021.

- For less than 25% of the race distance: 6-4-3-2-1 for the top 5.
- For 25% to 50% of the race distance: 13-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for the top 9.
- For 50% to 75% of the race distance: 19-14-12-9-8-6-5-3-2-1 for the top 10.
- For 75% or more of the race distance: Full points will be awarded for the top 10.

Pierre Gasly hopes that the race can actually get going in about 15-20 minutes, which tallies with what Norris was told earlier.

So, we're hopeful of getting something underway relatively soon.

I can see the rationale; by the time the cars had circulated to disperse some water, we'd get the spray back with the rainfall and have to go through the same thing. At least we should have a full 44 laps...ish.

That all being said, the world feed has panned across Raidillon and it still looks distinctly rainy. Less so, as the camera pans across the paddock - let's keep fingers crossed!

So, thanks for joining us. What should we talk about? 

We've had a question that asks "why can't we just use the wet tyre?" - there's two reasons for that, one being that given the main issue is visibility, the wet's stronger at dispersing water - it disperses about 85 litres of water per second, the intermediate disperses about 35-40 litres per second.

The wet might make that mitigating factor a touch worse, but the other issue is that the wet is effectively a safety car tyre.

The rain in certain parts of the circuit is beginning to stop, with blue cloud appearing over the circuit. Problem is, the circuit's so massive that it's still raining elsewhere...

We'll keep an eye on the race control boards, as the sun peeks over the Ardennes.

The three-hour window, according to the FIA, has not yet started as the race run-time has not been interrupted.

So, there's time to get a race in here - plus it's July, so plenty of daylight left.

We have the medical car doing some laps now, to many cheers in the crowd along the Kemmel Straight.

Lots of steam as the surface water evaporates, and the medical car almost has a moment out of the "Corner with No Name" (or Speakers' Corner, as it's also referred to).

Since we're almost up and running, I'll stop watching "Andre Agassi's greatest Grand Slam moments" and get back to focusing on a different discipline.

Could you get away with playing pro tennis in denim shorts today? Jannik's definitely not doing it.

Lap 2

That's our first sighter of the circuit in the books, it's not yet clear if we're about to get going again soon. Leclerc went a bit hot there at Raidillon and almost got a bit close to Piastri.

Can we go now? That looks fine at Pouhon.

Lap 3

"It's drying pretty quick," Hamilton reports. No indication yet that we'll get a standing start. 

We're getting a third lap behind the safety car. 

"Right side of the grid is still wetter than the left," Norris reports, as he's angling for a rolling start.

Lap 4

There is a patch of dry track at Stavelot, it's drying quickly, but we're going around behind the safety car again for some reason.

It'll be a rolling start, presumably at the end of this lap. I think they tried to make it a standing start, but the grid's a bit uneven with standing water.

Norris hits go though Blanchimont, squares off the chicane, and gets us under way.

Lap 6

Norris is back on 'normal' pace now having looked vulnerable to Leclerc. Russell gets past Albon at the top straight to take fifth place.

Of the pitlane starters, Sainz and Hamilton have passed Stroll.

Leclerc has a wide at Les Fagnes and this forces him to be aggressive on the exit of Stavelot to keep Verstappen at bay.