{"id":811153,"date":"2026-07-19T00:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T00:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/811153\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T00:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T00:40:11","slug":"ups-and-downs-at-spa-mercedes-mclaren-and-red-bull-drivers-mixed-fortunes-in-f1-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/811153\/","title":{"rendered":"Ups and Downs at Spa \u2013 Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull Drivers’ Mixed Fortunes in F1 Qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fascinating Formula 1 qualifying session at Spa saw four teams battling at the front , and the destination of pole seemingly in doubt until Kimi Antonelli secured it by over 0.3 seconds with his final run Saturday morning. <\/p>\n

It was also a day of curiously mixed fortunes amongst the teammates in the top cars, with some drivers happy and others rather less so \u2013 with Mercedes a case in point.<\/p>\n

Antonelli was fastest on Friday and again in Saturday\u2019s FP3 session before landing pole, continuing his strong run of form. In contrast, it\u2019s been a weekend of playingcatch-up for his teammate and title rival George Russell.<\/p>\n

Only eighth fastest and over a second off Antonelli on Friday, in the end he took P4 in qualifying, and he\u2019ll actually start a place ahead thanks to a penalty for Lando Norris. However, there was still a significant and painful time gap to his teammate, one that he was at a loss to explain.<\/p>\n

“Could be worse, could be much better,” he said when asked by Road & Track about his qualifying session. \u201cYesterday I was losing eight-tenths in the straights. Today I’m losing four-tenths. It’s a step in the right direction! We saw this from Silverstone. We thought we found the problem. We thought it was something with the brakes. It wasn’t the brakes. Then we thought it was my driving style, with the throttle, and I convinced myself that it was something in me with the driving style.<\/p>\n

“Now we’re very confident it’s not the driving style, and that there’s a serious issue atplay here, and the team is working so hard to resolve it. Every lap I do when I see I’m down, anywhere from two-tenths to six-tenths in the straights, it’s pretty infuriating.”<\/p>\n

While the issue may have been less costly in qualifying than in practice, it remainedsomething of a mystery to the team and the driver.<\/p>\n

“My whole focus for the last 36 hours has been on straight-line speed,” said Russell.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t been focused on the setup, the tires, or anything, because we’re all trying to solve what is going on. Even on my last lap, for some reason, I lost another tenth and a half to myself, just on the straight.<\/p>\n

He added: “You’re watching your steering wheel, just losing speed when you’re full gas on the straight. You feel powerless. So we don’t know what’s going on. I don’t think it’s the power unit, to be honest. But there’s something slowing us down on the straights, and as I said, the team are really, really on it now to try and solve it.”<\/p>\n

\"f1Mark Sutton – Formula 1\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

After a superior qualifying session, Lando Norris falls below his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri with his 10-place grid drop. <\/p>\n

There was something similar going on at McLaren, where Oscar Piastri could not match Norris as the weekend progressed.<\/p>\n

The World Champion was in an odd situation, having come into the weekend knowing that he had a 10-place grid penalty for taking new power unit components.<\/p>\n

Spa is always a good place to do such things, because passing is possible and races often turn into epics with safety cars and so on playing a role. Against expectations from the start of practice, Norris was at or near the top of the order, with his car proving very competitive, although his shot at P1 in qualifying waslost with a mistake on his last lap. He still earned third, but he now tumbles down to P13 on the final grid.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s obviously frustrating, but at least Norris knows that there\u2019s performance in the car, with more to come pending upgrades for Hungary \u2013 and he has a chance to make up ground on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Piastri, in contrast, has been slower all weekend, although he did get closer in qualifying, helped by Norris not getting that final lap in. The Australian will start P6 after Norris takes his penalty.<\/p>\n

“The whole day just trying to get the car to work how I wanted to, and to put it on the edge has been tough,” he explained. “So not the easiest weekend so far. It’s just been a very difficult car to drive. If you can balance it on the edge, then the lap time seems to be there. But balancing it on the edge is pretty tough.”<\/p>\n

Asked to expand on what was creating that situation, he said: “Bit of everything, depending on where exactly you put it, and which way the wind is, what kind of corner you’re in. It’s not one kind of clear problem. I think when you’ve got struggleswith a bit of everything, it’s probably that that’s just what the car is capable of, andextracting any more out of it is just needing more downforce, really.”<\/p>\n

\"f1Mark Sutton – Formula 1\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Already destined for the back of the grid, Isack Hadjar sacrificed his Q3 lap time to propel Max Verstappen to the front row. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at Red Bull there\u2019s a huge gap between Max Verstappen, in second on the grid, and his teammate Isack Hadjar, who starts from P21. However, this time it\u2019s not down to a performance differential.<\/p>\n

Like Norris, Hadjar has used Spa to make an inevitable PU element change, a tactic that the RBR team has also employed with Verstappen in the past.<\/p>\n

Unlike Norris, Hadjar has a 30-place drop and was guaranteed to start at the very back, or at least he was, until Fernando Alonso also took a penalty and relieved him of the last spot.<\/p>\n

Spa is a circuit where the tow is valuable, and Red Bull used a clever strategy of ensuring that Hadjar made it through to Q3, and then \u2013 with nothing to lose \u2013 used him to tow Verstappen round on both his runs. It worked, and the Dutchman earned the second spot on his final run, which was a few places higher than he felt he was destined for.<\/p>\n

However, it wasn\u2019t that straightforward for Hadjar, because in slowing down to wait for Verstappen, his Ford power unit was “confused” \u2013 an unusual reminder of just how complex the 2026 machines are, and how teams are still learning how to deal with them.<\/p>\n

“What’s difficult is to guess what the engine is going to give you,” Hadjar said when asked about the tactics by Road & Track. \u201cBecause once you stop out of Turn 14, and to deliver the power, the engine is a bit confused, because you’ve stopped for no reason, and the software is confused. So on that first attempt in Q3, I had way too much power, so I pulled away from him. And the second attempt, I didn’t have enough, so if anything, he was catching me, and I couldn’t tow him the whole way. So that was very difficult to judge.”<\/p>\n

Hadjar knew he\u2019d have to take a penalty at some point, but much like Norris it has coincided with the car being competitive. That will help him make progress, but inevitably his thoughts will drift to what might have been.<\/p>\n

“It’s probably the best the car has behaved this season,” he said. “So to start from where we start, it’s very frustrating. I’d like to be fighting at the front. And tomorrow, apart from overtaking slower cars… just not much learning in that.”<\/p>\n

All he can do from P21 is have a bit of fun: “No pressure, just trying to have the fastest race possible, overtake cars and bring points.”<\/p>\n

\"f1Mark Sutton – Formula 1\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are the only teammates to qualify side by side in the top four teams; they\u2019ll start P4 and P5 at the Belgian Grand Prix. <\/p>\n

Finally, the only top team with both drivers together on the grid is Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc starting P4 and Lewis Hamilton P5 \u2013 and remarkably they were separated by just 0.002s. It hasn\u2019t been a straightforward weekend for either man, with Hamilton\u2019s car needing a fast-tracked rebuild after a big crash in FP3.<\/p>\n

“I think something wasn’t the same on the rear suspension,\u201d said Lewis when asked by Road & Track if the car was as good as before. “So the balance wasn’t thesame basically as I had in P3, in which the car was feeling really great, but they worked right till the last minute to get the thing fixed. So I’m just grateful they did, and I hope the car’s still okay in the race tomorrow.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fascinating Formula 1 qualifying session at Spa saw four teams battling at the front , and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,183855,782,284707,784,578,576,577,237154,1642,284706,273948,82],"class_list":["post-811153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-collection-motorsport","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-3922fb2c-cb36-4f4d-bd75-43cd74ef207b","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-shorttitle-f1-teammates-saw-differing-fates-in-belgian-gp-quali","tag-sponsored-false","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811153","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=811153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}