F1 Belgian GP Live Commentary and Updates – Qualifying
Saturday's action from the 14th round of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
F1 concludes its latest double-header at Spa before heading into its summer break, following a dramatic McLaren 1-2 in Hungary last weekend.
Max Verstappen put Red Bull on top in the opening session of the weekend, only for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to vault McLaren to a 1-2 in FP2.
Final practice starts at 11:30pm BST, followed by qualifying at 3pm BST.
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With that, we'll call time on our live coverage of today's F1 action. Never fear, we'll be back tomorrow for all the pre-race build-up before lights out at 2pm BST. Join us then, it should be a cracker! Until then, go well!
Here's the full story on Belgian GP qualifying.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
So, technically it is Leclerc's pole - his first since winning in Monaco - but the entire pack will be wary of Verstappen charging through the field from 11th. It is very 2023 race set-up, but how will it play out in the much more competitive 2024 season?
More from Verstappen: "I know that I have to start 10 places back so this was the best I could do today. We'll go from there. I don't know how quick we are going to be but I hope that we can be in the mix to try to move forward."
Verstappen on topping qualifying: "It was a nice qualifying, luckily the weather was OK, it was raining a little bit but we could do a decent qualifying. Everything worked well, every tyre that we were on we could do a good lap time. I was also thinking about Q3, not knowing if it was going to dry out, so tried to keep two new sets for Q3."
Leclerc on second place in qualifying, but a latest pole: "It is exactly the same [as last year], it is good, I definitely didn't expect that this weekend. With the tricky conditions we could do something above our expectation. It is a good day for the day and now we need to focus on tomorrow and see what will happen when the rain is gone."
Perez on third in qualifying and a front row start for tomorrow's race: "It was very tricky at times, in these conditions it is always easy for it to go wrong, as it has in the last few qualifyings in these conditions. It was good to finally put it together but unfortunately we didn't have any new tyres for Q3. We were a little out of sync and we were a bit lucky to make it in P10. P2 is probably the best position you can wish for at Spa [for the start] and it was the same as last year with Charles!"
A word of credit to Perez. OK, he missed out on pole to Leclerc by 0.011s, but a front row start will be a bolt of confidence after a terrible recent run.
"Do we call that a pole, kind of, here?" Verstappen beams over team radio. His margin to Leclerc was 0.595s in the end. But it is the Ferrari driver that will start the Spa race from pole position with Verstappen starting from 11th on the grid.
Has this rain arrived to dampen the late fireworks? Nobody else improves and Perez pits at the end of his lap! That means Verstappen tops qualifying but Leclerc will get pole - exactly what happened last year!
Sainz improves but stays seventh, while Leclerc cuts between the two Red Bulls to go second!
Final lap time! All 10 drivers are on their all or nothing laps!
Norris makes gains to move into fourth behind Hamilton and that shuffles Piastri to fifth and Russell to sixth. Out come the rest for the final lap efforts.
Hamilton improves with a 1m53.835s but he cannot breach the Red Bull 1-2.
Into the final five minutes of Q3, as Hamilton, Piastri, Russell and Norris go for a second timed lap. Both Ferrari drivers pit for the final set of fresh inters.
Perez takes provisional pole but only for a matter of seconds as Verstappen storms to the top again. A 1m53.159s gives him a whopping six-tenths of a second advantage over Perez and then nearly nine-tenths of a second over Hamilton in third. Wow.
But Hamilton's lap is better than Piastri, Russell, Norris, Sainz, Alonso and Ocon... what can the Red Bulls do?
Hamilton posts a 1m54.011s for the marker to beat, a couple of tenths off the best Q2 times.
Hamilton, still at the head of the field following the out-laps, leads the pack up Eau Rouge. The rain looks to have relented and remains in its drizzly form.
Nine out of 10 drivers have gone out early - just Verstappen who takes his time to join the action. That's confidence for you.
Hamilton is at the head of the train at the end of pitlane waiting for Q3 to start. "Is it good that I am ahead of everyone?" Hamilton asks race engineer Bonnington. "It depends on the rain," is the reply, as the clouds darken overhead once again. Here we go for Q3.
Verstappen ended Q2 exactly 0.2s quicker than nearest challenger Hamilton but he kept his powder dry on that final run. It will be tough to beat the Dutch driver in the top 10 shootout, but he has a 10-place grid penalty to serve don't forget.
Out in Q2: 11. Albon, 12. Gasly, 13. Ricciardo, 14. Bottas, 15. Stroll.
Albon improves but not by enough as he is out in 11th, missing out on beating Perez by 0.003s. Another, even bigger, sigh of relief at Red Bull. He makes it into Q3 by the skin of his car livery.
Russell goes second quickest so he's safe, and then Hamilton does the same - so that shuffles Albon and Ricciardo into the drop!
The chequered flag is out, and Ocon goes fourth which pushes Hamilton into 11th. Then Gasly goes fourth and that pushes Russell into the Q2 drop zone!
Perez is on a timed lap and needs to make this count to make Q3... and he does by going up to fourth. Huge relief down at Red Bull.
Piastri goes second quickest so he looks safe for Q3. Then Ricciardo leaps up to sixth and that pushes Perez into 11th!
Both Ferraris fly up the order, Leclerc third and Sainz fourth, so that pushes Alonso and Ricciardo out as it stands. Perez is on the bubble in 10th.
Russell completes that lap to go fourth quickest, which drops Sainz out of the Q3 places. Meanwhile Hamilton moves from 10th to fifth.
Into the final five minutes of Q2 and Russell is sliding around in his Mercedes through the second sector. Verstappen goes fastest again with a 1m53.837s.
Perez says it is "raining harder now" to back up the weather radar forecast. Lots of drivers have opted for a second set of intermediates in order to stake their claims for Q2, but if the rain is harder it might not count for much.
Russell has pitted for a second set of inters having complained of rear sliding on his first lap in Q2. He's currently 11th and set to fall out in this session along with Gasly, Leclerc, Bottas and Stroll.
Verstappen, the final of the 15 drivers to set a lap time, goes quickest with a 1m53.857s to give him a six-tenths margin over nearest rival Norris. In these conditions he looks nailed on for pole come Q3 - if it wasn't for his impeding 10-place grid penalty.
There are reports of rain around the first sector of the track, so this could get hairy. Norris fastest so far with a 1m54.459s.
Verstappen says "it is raining a little bit, a tiny bit" which has been described as "drizzle" by his race engineer Lambiase. Gotta love rain chat.
Norris is told "Class 1 rain in 10 minutes" so again it is a race to get a lap time in before the precipitation arrives. All 15 runners are on track.
And off we go for Q2. More of the same but just the 15 minutes to decide who makes it into the top 10.
Albon has already made it to the end of the pitlane in preparation for the start of Q2. He's joined by a handful of others.
Piastri tops Q1 from Gasly with Verstappen third and Perez fourth. After all that uncertainty with the conditions, not too many surprises in the end.
By: Autosport Staff
