Piastri Claims Pole Position for Sprint Race at Belgian Grand Prix

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS: Oscar Piastri, currently leading the championship, secured pole position for Saturday’s sprint race, outperforming Max Verstappen and his McLaren colleague Lando Norris during Friday’s qualifying session at the Belgian Grand Prix.

This event marked Verstappen’s initial race following the replacement of Christian Horner with Laurent Mekies as team principal.

Piastri achieved his fastest lap with a time of 1 minute, 40.510 seconds. Max Verstappen, the defending champion from Red Bull, trailed by 0.477 seconds, while Norris finished 0.618 seconds behind the Australian driver.

Oscar Piastri commented on his triumph, noting it was an excellent lap and the vehicle performed exceptionally throughout the day.

“It was a satisfying lap. There was a minor concern in Q2 due to the lap deletion, but the car’s performance was outstanding today. It’s truly enjoyable when the car handles as well as it did today,” Piastri stated.

Norris mentioned that his performance wasn’t fast enough but expressed no disappointment.

“I believe it wasn’t sufficiently quick. It wasn’t the cleanest lap, and there is a considerable gap to the top. I’m not overly disappointed. Securing third place for the sprint race provides areas for improvement,” Norris commented.

After 12 races, Piastri leads Norris by eight points. The number of rounds remaining is the same as those completed.

Charles Leclerc of Ferrari will begin in fourth position. Lewis Hamilton, who secured his most recent victory in 2024 at this circuit with Mercedes, experienced a challenging afternoon and will start in 18th place.

George Russell, who topped the charts last year for Mercedes but was later disqualified due to the car being underweight, also had a subdued performance, qualifying in 13th place.