By Alan Baldwin
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (Reuters) -McLaren’s Lando Norris edged out championship-leading teammate and Formula One title rival Oscar Piastri to take pole position for what could be a wet and chaotic Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Briton blasted around the long Spa-Francorchamps circuit in a best time of one minute 40.562 seconds on Saturday, with Piastri 0.085 slower, to secure his fourth pole in 13 races and 13th of his career.
Norris will be chasing his third win in a row to cut the Australian’s nine-point lead.
“The car has been flying all weekend, Oscar’s been doing a good job all weekend so we’re pushing each other a lot,” said Norris, who was third in the earlier sprint race with Piastri second.
“It’s tough because you kind of see where your strengths and weaknesses are. And you learn from each other quickly. It’s a good but tough battle that we have at the minute.”
Norris said he was expecting rain and drizzle on Sunday and possibly a chaotic race.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start third and Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen, winner of the sprint, qualified fourth with a tweaked set-up for the expected Sunday conditions.
The grand prix will be a first for Laurent Mekies as Red Bull principal after long-time incumbent Christian Horner was sacked two weeks ago.
FINE MARGINS
Norris had been fastest in the opening phase of qualifying, with Piastri a close second, and the positions were reversed in the second section before the final top-10 shootout left the Briton on top.
His first lap of the decisive phase proved good enough, Norris unable to go any faster on his second run when Piastri threatened but made an error at Stavelot.
That turned the tables after the Australian’s dominant pole for the sprint by nearly half a second.
“I felt like the car was very good again, but it’s fine margins out there. It’s obviously not a bad place to be starting but there was more in it, which is always disappointing,” said the Australian.
“After the sprint, I was aiming for P2,” he added, referring to Verstappen winning from that position thanks to the slipstream he picked up from the car ahead.
Verstappen had looked like qualifying third until Leclerc pushed him down in the dying seconds.
Behind the top four, Alex Albon qualified fifth for Williams with George Russell sixth for Mercedes and ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, whose performance was the Japanese driver’s best so far with Red Bull.
Racing Bulls had Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson eighth and ninth with Sauber’s Brazilian rookie Gabriel Bortoleto completing the top 10.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, last year’s winner with Mercedes, failed to get through the first phase after his best lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.
The seven-times world champion, who has yet to stand on the podium since his move to Ferrari at the end of last season, will start 16th and said it was “not acceptable”.
Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli also struggled and will start in 18th place.
Aston Martin had Fernando Alonso qualify 19th and teammate Lance Stroll 20th.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Sharon Singleton, Ed Osmond and Pritha Sarkar)
