{"id":24025,"date":"2025-07-25T21:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T21:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/24025\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T21:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T21:58:10","slug":"piastri-dominates-sprint-qualifying-to-grab-pole-with-verstappen-second","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/24025\/","title":{"rendered":"Piastri dominates sprint qualifying to grab pole with Verstappen second"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren<\/a> driver Oscar Piastri<\/a> survived an early scare to take a dominant pole for the sprint race at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The Australian championship leader scraped through in SQ2 after a laptime was deleted for track-limits abuse.<\/p>\n

But he then set a 1m40.510s lap in the final segment of sprint qualifying, putting almost five tenths on Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen<\/a>, with team-mate Lando Norris<\/a> a massive six tenths behind in third.<\/p>\n

“Sorry for the heart attack,” Piastri told his team on his outlap. “That wasn’t in the plan, but the car was mega.”<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc<\/a> claimed fourth for Ferrari<\/a>, while Esteban Ocon<\/a> excelled for Haas by taking fifth on the sprint grid.<\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz<\/a> was sixth for Williams<\/a> ahead of the second Haas of Oliver Bearman<\/a> and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly<\/a>. Isack Hadjar<\/a> and Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> completed a top 10 that was without several heavy hitters.<\/p>\n

\"Andrea <\/p>\n

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Zak Mauger \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Among those missing out was Mercedes<\/a> rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a>, who suffered a spin on the exit of Stavelot in SQ1, heading through the gravel but escaping without apparent damage.<\/p>\n

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton<\/a> also had a big moment on his first run, meaning he and Antonelli were two of five drivers in danger of being knocked out.<\/p>\n

But neither driver’s fortunes improved on run two, with a frustrated Hamilton spinning at the Bus Stop chicane after his rear tyres instantly locked under braking, resulting in the seven-time world champion being knocked out in 18th.<\/p>\n

Gasly was under pressure but saved himself in 15th at the expense of Williams’ Alex Albon<\/a>, while Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> was down in 17th. Behind Hamilton, Franco Colapinto<\/a> was out in 19th with Antonelli last after reporting brake issues.<\/p>\n

Racing Bulls man Liam Lawson<\/a> was the first to be eliminated in SQ2 – which was delayed to clean up gravel – in 11th, followed by Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> in the second Red Bull. Instead of Piastri, the biggest victim was Mercedes’ George Russell<\/a>, who went out unceremoniously in 13th.<\/p>\n

F1 Belgian GP – sprint qualifying results<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren driver Oscar Piastri survived an early scare to take a dominant pole for the sprint race at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[3272,49,48,3273,578,576,577,590,592,82],"class_list":["post-24025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-belgian-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-circuit-de-spa-francorchamps","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mclaren","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24025","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=24025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}