dpa
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix from pole as history repeated itself with Saturday’s qualifying winner Max Verstappen taking a grid penalty.
Triple world champion Verstappen dominated the wet qualifying session with 1 minute 53.159 seconds on the iconic 7.003-kilometre Spa-Francorchamps circuit to finish more than half a second ahead of Leclerc.
Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez was third and will share the first row with Leclerc because Verstappen will serve a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding engine allowance and enter the race from 11th.
It was a deliberate decision by Red Bull because Spa offers good overtaking opportunities.
Verstappen also served grid penalties the past two years and still won, from 14th in 2022 and sixth in 2023, when Lecerc also inherited the pole.
"I know that I have to start 10 places back so this was the best I could do today, and I go from there. I don’t know how quick we’re going to be.
"I hope that we can be in the mix to try to move forward,” he said.
Verstappen tops the drivers’ standings, 76 points ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who will start from fourth behind Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
But Verstappen is winless from his last three races and his Red Bull team are also struggling overall, not as dominant this season as in the past two years.
He was satisfied with the car in the wet conditions but may find it harder than the past two years on Sunday, given a dry weather forecast and the big strides other teams have made.
"We are not making it easy on ourselves and especially of course in the battle that we’re in. I know that today was a great day, but it’s in the wet, we need to be quick in the dry tomorrow,” Verstappen said.
"It’s going to be a tough battle. We’ll try to do the best we can.
Hopefully we can battle the Ferrari and Mercedes ahead, and if we have a bit of luck, maybe we can challenge the McLaren.” Ferrari also hope to be competitive Leclerc said that "obviously I will try to keep that first place” but like Verstappen said he was not sure how good the Ferrari would be in the dry after qualifying "above our expectations.
"It’s a good day for the team so now we need to focus on tomorrow and see what will happen when the rain is gone,” said Leclerc, who has not been able to challenge for the top since an emotional home win in Monaco.
"Without this rain, probably P5 was the position we were fighting for with the Mercedes especially. But with the rain it helped us a little bit, but I’m not going to complain.”