\u2018No mistakes\u2019: Max pips Piastri with \u2018incredibly brilliant drive\u2019 in perfect start to post-Horner era<\/a><\/p>\nLando Norris during qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Piastri, who had been faster than Norris in Friday\u2019s action, said: \u201cIt\u2019s a bit disappointing. The second lap was coming together well and then I made a mistake into turn 14 and I lost a lot of time. The car was very good again, but it\u2019s about fine margins.\u201d Leclerc said he was surprised by his time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect it. We thought we were a lot more behind. We thought we had something more in the car with the upgrade, but it was a good lap. It takes time to maximise those upgrades.\u201d <\/p>\n
After a masterclass from Verstappen in the sprint race earlier, Red Bull chose to change his \u2018skinny\u2019 rear wing to a bigger high-downforce version in anticipation of Sunday bringing heavy rain to the sweeping Ardennes circuit.<\/p>\n
Norris found his pace to clock 1:41.010, six-tenths better than the Ferrari, followed by Piastri two-tenths down in second, the pair showing McLaren\u2019s intent under grey skies before a frantic finale during which Hamilton found a late survival lap which was promptly deleted for exceeding track limits.<\/p>\n
That left Gabriel Bortoleto 15th for Sauber and eliminated the Ferrari driver along with Alpine\u2019s Franco Colapinto, Mercedes\u2019 rookie Antonelli, who replaced Hamilton, and the two Aston Martins of Alonso and Lance Stroll.<\/p>\n
Oscar Piastri branded his second place in Belgian GP qualifying \u201cdisappointing\u201d.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Q2 began with everyone on softs and Verstappen fastest, trimming Norris\u2019s time, before Piastri and Norris took over for the opening runs.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman chose not to run again, leaving the usual suspects a clear run to the top-ten shootout while the Haas pair Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman exited along with Alpine\u2019s Pierre Gasly, Hulkenberg and Sainz.<\/p>\n
Russell, who was stripped of victory last year because of an underweight car, was first out for Q3, but it was Verstappen again on top before the McLarens flexed their muscle, Norris beating Piastri by 0.189 on their first runs.<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s final run on fresh softs was not enough to resist an improved lap from Leclerc as Piastri also failed to improve, leaving Norris to claim pole position.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my god, that was really, really bad\u201d said Verstappen, as a rise in track temperature beyond 40 degrees subdued his performance.<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc qualified third at Spa-Francorchamps.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
HEAT RISING AT MCLAREN<\/p>\n
Lando Norris said he had not lost any confidence in his ability to outpace McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri after he bounced back on Saturday to claim pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Briton, who was beaten by series leader Piastri in Friday\u2019s sprint qualifying, said it was tough for both McLaren drivers as they battle for supremacy in their intra-team rivalry \u2014 and slug it out for the drivers\u2019 world championship.<\/p>\n
After 12 of this year\u2019s 24 races, Piastri leads with 241 points and five wins ahead of Norris on 232 and four wins. Defending four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull is third on 173 after two Grand Prix wins.<\/p>\n
Norris, who is chasing a third consecutive Grand Prix win on Sunday to overhaul the 24-year-old Australian, admitted he was aware that \u201ceveryone was worried\u201d after Friday when he was three-tenths slower.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t that far off, but there were a couple of little issues and everyone was pretty worried,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I was confident after yesterday and I was confident coming into today so it\u2019s nice to see that I could get back to the top.\u201d <\/p>\n
Asked where his improvement came from, he said: \u201cThree-tenths is just slipstream and not being the first out of the pit-lane.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nothing to worry about, but people like to make a lot of things up. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt good and the car has been flying all weekend.\u201d <\/p>\n
Pole position qualifier Lando Norris (C), with Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Norris has been accused of mental fragility and being oversensitive to his own high expectations and media criticism.<\/p>\n
He said that it was intense and challenging for both McLaren drivers to maintain a strong relationship as teammates while fighting for the drivers\u2019 title.<\/p>\n
\u201cOscar has been doing a good job all weekend and we\u2019ve been pushing each other a lot,\u201d said Norris.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough because you see where your strengths and weaknesses are clearly \u2014 and then you learn from each other quickly. It\u2019s good, but it\u2019s a tough battle that we have at the minute.\u201d <\/p>\n
Piastri agreed that maintaining a balanced approach was difficult. \u201cWe\u2019re a good teammate pairing and we learn a lot from each other each weekend. That\u2019s what makes us a good team, but it also makes it difficult to fight each other.\u201d <\/p>\n
Norris said he wanted Sunday\u2019s race to be run in dry conditions, despite forecast heavy rain for the Ardennes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI prefer it to stay dry honestly. For the fans! I think it\u2019s rained here for the last 10 years or something so it would be nice to have a dry Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLaren’s Lando Norris celebrates his pole position\/Source: AFP<\/p>\n
BELGIAN GP QUALIFYING RESULTS<\/p>\n
1) Lando Norris, McLaren 1:40.562<\/p>\n
2) Oscar Piastri, McLaren +0.085<\/p>\n
3) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari +0.338<\/p>\n
4) Max Verstappen, Red Bull +0.341<\/p>\n
5) Alex Albon, Williams +0.639<\/p>\n
6) George Russell, Mercedes +0.698<\/p>\n
7) Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull +0.722<\/p>\n
8) Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls +0.748<\/p>\n
9) Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls +0.766<\/p>\n
10) Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber +1.825<\/p>\n
Knocked out in Q2<\/p>\n
11) Esteban Ocon, Haas 1:41.525<\/p>\n
12) Oliver Bearman, Haas 1:41.617<\/p>\n
13) Pierre Gasly, Alpine 1:41.633<\/p>\n
14) Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber 1:41.707<\/p>\n
15) Carlos Sainz, Williams 1:41.758<\/p>\n
Knocked out in Q1<\/p>\n
16) Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari 1:41.939<\/p>\n
17) Franco Colapinto, Williams 1:42.022<\/p>\n
18) Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes 1:42.139<\/p>\n
19) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin 1:42.385<\/p>\n
20) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin 1:42.502<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris resisted mounting pressure from his McLaren teammate and series leader Oscar Piastri on Saturday to take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,3159,2071,24120,4971,21763,24135,13275,24121,24122,22304,2057,24124,817,845,813,816,1802,24134,3875,2105,23794,24125,24126,24130,10115,1737,825,24128,24131,24129,5242,16280,18250,24133,918,24123,22295,85,22301,22764,24127,24132,22294,2062,2753,2086,5077],"class_list":["post-24428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-austria","tag-belgium","tag-brilliant-drive","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-championship-lead","tag-championship-takeover","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-defending-four-time-champion","tag-defending-world-champion","tag-esteban-ocon","tag-europe","tag-exceeding-track-limits","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-franco-colapinto","tag-front-row-lockout","tag-george-russell","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-heavy-rain","tag-high-downforce-version","tag-improved-lap","tag-intra-team-rivalry","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-lando-norris","tag-max-verstappen","tag-media-criticism","tag-mercurial-rookie","tag-mounting-pressure","tag-oliver-bearman","tag-pole-position","tag-pole-position-qualifier","tag-qualifying-results","tag-red-bull","tag-ryan-pierse","tag-series-leader","tag-sports","tag-sprint-qualifying","tag-sprint-race","tag-survival-lap","tag-teammate-pairing","tag-title-race","tag-western-europe","tag-world-champion","tag-world-championship","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24428","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=24428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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