Antonelli charges to pole position in exhilarating Belgian GP Qualifying

Kimi Antonelli has added a sixth pole position to his season tally after setting the fastest lap in Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, fending off challenges from Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

The Mercedes driver took time to find a rhythm during the hour-long session, but his final effort of 1m 44.361s was enough to seize P1 by three-tenths from Verstappen, who suffered a near miss with Isack Hadjar on his last lap, having been given a tow by his Red Bull team mate.

Norris – who will drop to P13 thanks to a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his power unit components allocation – had initially set the fastest time after the opening runs in Q3, but could not find enough to beat Antonelli, ultimately finishing ahead of George Russell, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

Small margins separated most of the top qualifiers as Oscar Piastri took P7 from Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad, with Gabriel Bortoleto in P9. Hadjar qualified 10th but will tumble to the back of the field due to his 20-place grid penalty, promoting all those behind him by a place.

Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson missed out on a place in Q3 by just 0.038s to a rapid Bortoleto and will line up ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly (12th) and Franco Colapinto (13th). While his team mate made Q3, Nico Hulkenberg could only manage P14 for Audi, with his session ending with a sudden hydraulic leak that caused a small delay to the beginning of Q3.

Ollie Bearman finished P16 behind Carlos Sainz, while the second Williams of Alex Albon wasn’t able to make it out of Q1 and settled for P17. He was just ahead of Esteban Ocon, who suffered a disappointing early exit on the 10th anniversary of his F1 debut.

Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez followed in P19 and P20 for Cadillac, with the Aston Martin pair locking out the back row – though, like Hadjar, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will also start the Grand Prix with substantial grid penalties.

AS IT HAPPENED

Q1 – Norris quickest from Red Bull duo

Teams and drivers had a short few hours to reset for Qualifying, with Ferrari especially under pressure to rebuild Hamilton’s car after he damaged the rear in a crash earlier in FP3. Fortunately for the Briton, they were able to make the necessary changes to the suspension, floor and rear wing before the session began.

As the light at the end of the pit lane turned green, the Cadillac pair joined Stroll as the first cars to head out onto the circuit – all three are yet to progress to Q2 this season, leaving them eager to maximise their track time in the opening segment.

Spa-Francorchamps presents the longest lap on the calendar, so many of the drivers elected to remain in their garages for the first few minutes in order to squeeze their two flying laps in. As a result, it wasn’t until the 14-minute mark that the traffic started to increase and Perez’s early benchmark was quickly beaten.

With everyone on soft tyres, Verstappen became the first of the typical frontrunners to shoot to the top of the timesheets with a time of 1m 45.930s, which Antonelli was unable to match on his first effort. In fact, it was Racing Bulls’ Lindblad who got closest to the Dutchman in the early stages.

Hadjar, who is set to start Sunday’s race with a 20-place grid penalty, was next to slot in behind the lead Red Bull before Norris – another driver who will drop positions down the grid no matter his Qualifying result – claimed the top spot.

Everyone briefly returned to the pits to reset for their final attempts, with those at risk seeking significant improvements – Colapinto, Ocon, Perez, Bottas, Alonso and Stroll all found themselves in the elimination zone as they started their out laps.

While the top three of Norris, Verstappen and Hadjar felt safe enough to not complete another lap, Colapinto was the only driver to climb into the top-16. He leapt up to P13, just behind his Alpine team mate who set the fastest final sector of the session, demoting Albon to P17.

The Williams man suffered his sixth Q1 exit in 10 rounds and was joined by Ocon, marking the 10th anniversary of his debut, both Cadillacs (Bottas taking P19 ahead of Perez) and both Aston Martins. Alonso qualified 21st but will be relegated to the back of the grid due to his penalty for changing numerous power unit elements.

Knocked out: Albon, Ocon, Bottas, Perez, Alonso, Stroll

Q2 – Antonelli returns to the top while Lindblad shines

It was another gradual start to Q2, but a queue eventually formed as everyone sought a valuable place among the top 10 on the grid. All eyes were on Antonelli as he set out to return to P1 after an underwhelming Q1 showing, which involved Russell getting ahead of him for the first time this weekend.

The Italian appeared to rediscover the pace that saw him thrive in FP2 and FP3 as he posted a lap of 1m 45.142s, but Russell struggled on his first lap and wound up a less-than-ideal 0.547s behind Antonelli.

Things went from bad to worse for the Briton as he tumbled down the order while Leclerc took P2 for Ferrari, albeit still two-tenths off Antonelli’s time. Further back, Lindblad completed a stunning effort in his freshly upgraded car to seize P6, finding himself firmly in the mix with the likes of Verstappen and Piastri.

Despite their strong finish to Q1, Alpine’s Gasly and Colapinto couldn’t escape from Q2 and ended up 12th and 13th respectively, with Lawson narrowly missing out on 10th to an impressive lap by Bortoleto.

Hulkenberg was knocked out in 14th for Audi and was seen pulling to the side of the track with a hydraulic leak after the chequered flag fell, subsequently delaying the start of the top-10 shootout. The final drivers who failed to progress were Williams’ Sainz and Haas’ Bearman.

Knocked out: Lawson, Gasly, Colapinto, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Bearman

Q3 – Verstappen loses out to supreme Antonelli

Everyone was ready and waiting for the beginning of Q3, but Piastri seemed to think that Audi were a bit too keen to send Bortoleto out – the Australian reported over the radio that he spotted “about three unsafe releases in one” as he patiently sat in the pit lane.

Although he will start from the back of the grid due to his penalty, Hadjar took part in the full Qualifying hour, with the reason made clear as he gave his team mate an extremely useful slipstream to hand Verstappen an early P1.

However, Red Bull were no match for Antonelli, who claimed a superb provisional pole position before Norris then went even faster. His time of 1m 44.801s was the quickest of the weekend so far, with McLaren hoping that he would qualify as high as possible to minimise the impact of his own 10-place grid penalty.

The session was temporarily halted to clear gravel at Stavelot before the action ramped up once again. This final lap could change the course of a driver’s race in Belgium, but who would excel in the battle for pole position?

With such tight margins, Antonelli, Verstappen, Russell and Lindblad all began their laps with immense speed before the Dutchman’s effort was undone by a close moment with Hadjar, who was trying to offer another tow.

It proved futile as Antonelli stormed to pole position by 0.317s over Verstappen, while Norris finished close behind in P3. Russell was next ahead of the Ferraris of Leclerc and Hamilton, who were separated by just 0.002s.

Piastri, Lindblad, Bortoleto and Hadjar completed the top 10, with all except the Frenchman set to gain a position on the grid due to Norris’ penalty. Like McLaren, Red Bull chose to replace some power unit elements on Hadjar’s car, leaving him to start towards the back of the grid.

Key quote

"It's great to be on pole," said Antonelli. "Was not a very straightforward session, the track changed a lot but we were able to improve lap by lap and bring home pole which was nice. Of course, tomorrow is another day. I have Max starting next to me so it's going to be important to get a good start and then try to be ahead into Turn 5."

What's next

The 2026 Belgian Grand Prix is set to begin at 1500 local time on Sunday. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can follow the action from Spa-Francorchamps.