Dominant Verstappen! Despite his fastest time, Sainz takes pole position at Spa, Belgium, in the Ferrari

The Formula 1 carousel is back! The historic Spa-Francorchamps circuit hosted the 14th qualifying of the season today. The leader of the standings, Max Verstappen, won the race, but he will start from the back of the grid due to a penalty for changing a power unit component. Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari scores his second career pole position!

The start of qualifying, scheduled for 4pm, was postponed due to repairs to the barrier following an accident in qualifying for the accompanying Porsche Supercup series. The green light at the end of pit lane eventually allowed the F1 monoblocs onto the track 25 minutes late.

Williams’ Nicholas Latifi was the first to enter the seven-kilometre Spa circuit. Moments later, all 20 drivers completed their first flying laps.

Verstappen, who along with six other rivals will start the grand prix from the rear positions, held the top position ahead of the duo of Ferrari drivers and his teammate Sergio Pérez. The reigning world champion’s time of 1:44.581 was not bettered until the end of Q1.

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel missed out by just two thousandths of a second. He was followed by Latifi, Magnussen, Tsunoda and Bottas.

The second part of qualifying was dominated by the Red Bull cars. Only at the very end did Charles Leclerc produce the fastest lap with a time of 1:44.551. But hats off to Alexander Albon’s performance. The Thai driver surprised everyone with a great tenth time, leaving the five of Ricciardo, Gasly, Chou, Stroll and Schumacher behind him.

Q3 thus saw a pair of Red Bulls, a Ferrari, a Mercedes, an Alpina, including the McLaren of Norris and the Williams of Albon. However, Verstappen looks like the one with a huge chance to earn many positions during tomorrow’s race.

The Dutchman completely dominated the third part of qualifying as well, picking up more than six tenths of a second on second-placed Sainz. However, the Spaniard will start the Belgian Grand Prix from pole position after Verstappen’s penalty. He will be joined on the front row by Pérez.

The results of qualifying for the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix are attached in the Twitter post below. It’s worth noting that tomorrow’s starting grid will be significantly different to the results of today’s qualifying runs.

For example, we’ll see Albon in a cool sixth place, while Leclerc’s fourth place means he’ll head into the race behind Verstappen.

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