Oscar Piastri beat Max Verstappen to pole position for the sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix as Red Bull began its first\u00a0Formula 1\u00a0race weekend since the\u00a0firing of Christian Horner\u00a0as team principal.<\/p>\n
Red Bull has been the focus of attention in F1 after Horner’s dismissal earlier this month, but Piastri, Verstappen and Lando Norris showed the title fight remains vibrant ahead of Saturday’s sprint.<\/p>\n
Piastri was at risk of being eliminated after straying off track in the second part of the session but bounced back to take pole by .477 of a second from Red Bull’s Verstappen, who split the two dominant McLarens by relegating Norris to third, .618 off the pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe car’s been mega all day,\u201d Piastri said on Friday. \u201cThis is a track I love, it’s my favorite one of the year and maybe that gave me a couple of extra tenths (of a second).\u201d<\/p>\n
Norris\u2019 emotional\u00a0win in the rain\u00a0at the British Grand Prix cut Piastri\u2019s championship lead to eight points, while Piastri\u00a0fumed\u00a0at what he saw as the unfair penalty he received at Silverstone.<\/p>\n
Friday was the first test of the Australian driver\u2019s vow to harness the \u201cfrustration\u201d he felt to win more races. And just like at Silverstone, rain could play a big part this weekend. It may affect both Saturday\u2019s sprint and the Grand Prix on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari and Haas had a strong day with Esteban Ocon fifth and Oliver Bearman seventh. Yuki Tsunoda continued to struggle in the second Red Bull, qualifying 12th for the sprint, and it was a poor session for Mercedes, with George Russell 13th and Kimi Antonelli 20th.<\/p>\n
Red Bull’s new team principal Laurent Mekies says he hasn’t been told why its parent company chose to fire Horner.<\/p>\n
Amid rampant speculation across Formula 1, Red Bull\u2019s parent company hasn\u2019t explained its reasons for removing Horner from his role after 20 years. Mekies said his appointment was \u201ca surprise for everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t get into the \u2018why?\u2019 and the \u2018why now?\u2019, but they outlined the sort of objectives they had for the team moving forward,\u201d said Mekies, who is in charge of the team for the first time at the Belgian Grand Prix after moving up from sister team Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n
Mekies has been in contact with Horner, who he said was \u201cnothing else than supportive, even in the extremely difficult context.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing has stayed the same \u2014 Verstappen’s future remains uncertain. The Dutch driver said Thursday that Horner was like a \u201csecond family\u201d but that his removal\u00a0wouldn’t affect\u00a0his plans.<\/p>\n
Verstappen said he still hoped to remain with Red Bull for the rest of his career but noted that \u201clife is unpredictable.\u201d In an extra twist, Russell indicated to broadcaster Sky Sports on Thursday that he believed Verstappen and Mercedes remained in talks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure Max wants a fast car and if we get him a fast car, I\u2019m sure it\u2019s canceling out all the other considerations,\u201d Mekies said Friday, adding that if that happens it could be \u201can easy call for Max.”<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton has\u00a0declared\u00a0it’s \u201ccrunch time\u201d for him at Ferrari, but there was more disappointment for the British driver as he spun at the final chicane in sprint qualifying and finished 18th.<\/p>\n
The seven-time champion, yet to finish on the podium in a Grand Prix since joining Ferrari, revealed Thursday he’s been setting up a series of meetings not just with top team personnel, but with Ferrari’s corporate leadership. Hamilton’s seeking \u201cstructural adjustments\u201d and to make sure his voice is part of Ferrari’s development plans for 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri beat Max Verstappen to pole position for the sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-23395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}