Teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli has added a sixth pole position to his 2026 tally after setting the fastest lap in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes star bested Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.3 seconds and dedicated the pole position to his father, Marco, who celebrated his 62nd birthday on qualifying day in Spa.
Kimi Antonelli celebrates pole. AP Photo/Omar Havana
“Let’s go, man, let’s go,” Antonelli said over the radio.
“Happy birthday, dad.”
Lando Norris rounded out the top three, but will tumble down the order due to McLaren changing his engine, starting Monday AEST’s race in 13th place.
His teammate, Oscar Piastri, will begin the race from seventh, though he admitted after the session it has been a heavily compromised weekend.
“It’s been a bit of a struggle. It started okay in FP1, but then yesterday we had an issue. So I missed the start and a little bit of FP2,” Piastri said.
“But even the laps I did were tricky. And then today it’s been the same story. So eventually it was a little bit more respectable.
“But it’s been a tough weekend, that’s for sure.”
A hydraulics issue interrupted his practice sessions, meaning the Aussie has been without long-run data due to a lack of track time.
“We don’t really know,” he said when asked by reporters about his race pace.
“We didn’t really do that many laps in FP2 in terms of race running. So it’s very hard to read where we are.
“But I think that the pack around us is very tight. We’re probably just at the back of it. So we’ll see what we can do. But it’s not going to be easy.”