![\"Mario](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/de255290a12dde3c0db0ae7a67c778e4.jpeg\")
Mario Isola, Director of Pirelli F1 presents Sprint Pole qualifier Oscar Piastri of Australia and McLaren with his Pirelli Sprint Pole award.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Pierre Gasly was eighth for Alpine ahead of Racing Bulls\u2019 rookie Isack Hadjar and Sauber\u2019s Gabriel Bortoleto while seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton wound up in 18th place after spinning his Ferrari in SQ1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a good lap!\u201d said Piastri. \u201cI had a scare in SQ2 with the deletion of my lap, but the car has been mega all day so thanks to the team. The car is great.\u201d Piastri\u2019s success helped him erase his disappointment at the British Grand Prix where he was handed a 10-second penalty and felt he missed out on a victory as Norris won to trim his lead in the title race.<\/p>\n
Verstappen, in his first race weekend since the exit of team boss Christian Horner, said he was satisfied with P2.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be there between the two of them is a good result for us,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I enjoyed it out there and the lap was good. The gap is big, so we have to focus on ourselves and the balance of the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
The session began in bright and breezy conditions at the majestic old circuit in the Ardennes, soon after new Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies had made his first public appearance after replacing Horner.<\/p>\n
Lando hurt while trying to celebrate | 00:30<\/p>\n
As expected, the Frenchman told a news conference his priority was to secure the future of Verstappen.<\/p>\n
He also revealed he had been as shocked as everyone else when he received the news of Horner\u2019s exit and the job offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came in a completely unexpected way,\u201d he said. \u201cIt came out of the blue and I asked for time to think about it before I realised \u2018this is Red Bull\u2019 and so I rang them back.\u201d As the sprint qualifying began, Verstappen remained in the garage while mechanics worked on his car. It was a minor delay and he was soon on track as Kimi Antonelli spun off at Stavelot in his Mercedes and returned via a deep run in the gravel trap.<\/p>\n
The Italian was followed by Hamilton who had a big slide off at Stavelot, just managing to stay out of the gravel before going off again at the chicane — a mechanical problem on his Ferrari wrecking his lap and session.<\/p>\n
At the top, Verstappen managed to split the two McLarens as he had during the morning practice ahead of Fernando Alonso and George Russell.<\/p>\n
The two McLarens were first out for SQ2, Piastri once again setting the pace before his lap was deleted because he exceeded track limits at Raidillon, leaving Norris on top.<\/p>\n
The Australian had to go again as the rest joined the fray, led by Verstappen and Leclerc.<\/p>\n
A frantic finale ensued with Norris clocking a late fastest lap ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc while Piastri squeezed through in 10th.<\/p>\n
The Melbourne-native then produced a stunning third lap to secure pole for the following day.<\/p>\n
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton suffered an ugly spin.Source: AP<\/p>\n
HAMILTON\u2019S ROUGH DAY OUT<\/p>\n
A downcast Lewis Hamilton said he had never before had a spin like the one that knocked him out of sprint qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix on Friday, while Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc qualified fourth.<\/p>\n
But the gloomy seven-time world champion was cleared of blame by veteran commentator and former F1 driver Martin Brundle, who said the rear axle of Hamilton\u2019s Ferrari \u201cbroke up under braking\u201d.<\/p>\n
Brundle said it was \u201chighly unusual\u201d, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anyone more surprised at that than Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like a technical issue. Nobody will be more surprised than Lewis. It\u2019s almost like the engine sort of stalled out and every time he pulled another shift, it\u2019s just locked the rear axle.\u201d Hamilton ended up qualifying 18th on the 20-car grid just 24 hours after his highly-charged comments about winning a championship at Ferrari and not suffering the plight of fellow former multiple champions Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.<\/p>\n
He struggled throughout the day at the sprawling and majestic Spa-Francorchamps circuit — one of his favourites — and ran wide at Stavelot early in SQ1 before his spin at the chicane.<\/p>\n
Hamilton said he had never experienced that kind of spin before. Facing reporters later, he was asked what had gone wrong and responded: \u201cI spun.\u201d He added that it was \u201cthe first time, I think, in my career\u201d that he had spun in that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not really a lot to say,\u201d he added. \u201cObviously, I\u2019m massively frustrated.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of work has gone in and to be there is not really great. So hopefully tomorrow will be better.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Series leader Oscar Piastri secured pole position for Saturday\u2019s sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[2620,64,22306,63,689,18503,4971,21763,13275,1199,22303,22304,817,845,813,816,3875,10114,22309,1737,22292,22298,825,647,22307,20590,677,22293,16280,22297,22310,22302,22299,22308,22300,918,851,22295,22305,20587,85,22301,22294,22291,22296,660],"class_list":["post-22082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-au","tag-aussie-superstar","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-driver","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-championship-lead","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-christian-horner","tag-devastating-record-lap","tag-esteban-ocon","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-isack-hadjar","tag-job-offer","tag-lando-norris","tag-mario-isola","tag-martin-brundle","tag-max-verstappen","tag-melbourne","tag-multiple-champions","tag-news-conference","tag-oceania","tag-pole-award","tag-pole-position","tag-practice-session","tag-prime-starting-position","tag-qualifier-oscar","tag-rear-axle","tag-record-lap","tag-record-breaking-sprint-triumph","tag-red-bull","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-series-leader","tag-seven-time-champion","tag-seven-time-world-champion","tag-sports","tag-sprint-qualifying","tag-title-race","tag-track-limits","tag-veteran-commentator","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}