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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Spa: Hopes of back-to-back Belgian Grand Prix podiums aren\u2019t impossible, but look far-fetched for Aussie Oscar Piastri, who struggled for pace during Saturday\u2019s qualifying session after suffering mechanical issues earlier in the weekend.<\/p>\n The McLaren garage was a flurry of orange shirts and concerned faces on Friday as engineers rushed to fix a hydraulic leak at the end of FP1, which required a gearbox swap and cost the Australian valuable track time.<\/p>\n At a sun-soaked Spa during Saturday\u2019s qualifying session, Piastri persevered to make Q3, but ultimately didn\u2019t have the pace to challenge for a spot at the front of the grid and qualified seventh, but will move up to sixth due to grid penalties.<\/p>\n When asked what was missing from his side, an honest Piastri had a two-word response.<\/p>\n \u201cJust speed,\u201d he said in his post-race interview.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not been particularly easy all weekend to be honest, struggling with the balance of the car, but today in particular it\u2019s been a pretty big grind to try and get any lap time out of it, not an easy day, but we will see what we can do tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Piastri said McLaren was probably the third or fourth-fastest car on track, but hoped the papaya team would still be able to make an impact during Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Italian youngster Kimi Antonelli has snatched his sixth pole position, fending off a last-minute charge from Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen, who received a tow from his teammate Isack Hadjar.<\/p>\n \u201cTo bring home pole is nice, but tomorrow is another day, with Max starting next to me, it will be important to get a good start and be ahead into Turn 5,\u201d the 19-year-old said in a post-race interview.<\/p>\n The Mercedes driver\u2019s time of 1m 44.361s was enough to seize pole by three-tenths from Verstappen who will start in second.<\/p>\n Piastri\u2019s current predicament is in direct contrast to teammate Lando Norris, who clinched third after a strong performance where he briefly notched the fastest lap.<\/p>\n Despite his pace, Norris will drop to P13 following a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his power unit components\u2019 allocation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t changed anything, we are just quicker on this track,\u201d Norris noted when asked about McLaren\u2019s performance in Belgium post-qualifying.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunate that this is not where we are genuinely starting tomorrow, as it would be nice to be fighting with these guys [Verstappen and Antonelli].<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been happy all weekend, so hopefully we can still have a good race tomorrow. The car is performing well, good enough for P3 today, so we will see. Hopefully, we will put on a good show for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Spa-Francorchamps is the longest circuit on the calendar, with a unique combination of high speeds, steep elevation changes and often unpredictable weather<\/p>\n While Saturday\u2019s qualifying session had a nail-biting finish between Verstappen and Antonelli, arguably the most dramatic moment happened hours early in practice.<\/p>\n During FP3, Lewis Hamilton was trying to catch Antonelli \u2013but emerged wide from the Fanges chicane and veered into the gravel.<\/p>\n The seven-time world champion smashed his rear wheel into the barrier, shredding the tyre and damaging the rear wing as the Ferrari spluttered to a halt.<\/p>\n Spectators in the stands stood up and crowded the barriers, as Hamilton gingerly stepped out of the car to examine the damage.<\/p>\n The crash suspended practice and triggered a yellow flag, giving the Ferrari mechanics mere hours to fix Hamilton\u2019s car before qualifying.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve destroyed the car mate, sorry,\u201d Hamilton said over the radio.<\/p>\n Ferrari mechanics worked miracles to ensure the car was ready for qualifying that afternoon, but Hamilton only managed to clinch sixth place.<\/p>\n The Belgian Grand Prix is on Sunday 11pm AEST.<\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Oscar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8738eb5a462cab5004655d502b87e9cb7bf434f8.jpeg\")
Oscar Piastri ahead of Qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Oscar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784400316_178_a80d0dced8665a5174b4db52d2350624acaeec60.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Mercedes\u2019](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/de605c484130163c31119ef9c29ee0d6fff6c737.jpeg\")
Mercedes\u2019 Kimi Antonelli secured another pole position, ahead of Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen and McLaren\u2019s Lando Norris.AP Photo\/Omar Havana<\/p>\n![\"Hannah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4a75e76766d9902d6b240cd6320538448b86d10a.png\")
Hannah Kennelly<\/a> is an award-winning sports reporter and Formula 1 writer at The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-808720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808720","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=808720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}