SPA, Belgium — Formula 1 point leader Oscar Piastri outran world champion Max Verstappen by nearly half a second to win the pole for Saturday’s Sprint Race ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Franchorchamps.
Piastri took the top spot from his McLaren teammate with a lap of one minute and 40.510 seconds and wound up with the top spot over Verstappen, who drove his Red Bull to a lap of one minute and 40.987 seconds.
“Thanks to the team, the car’s been great and this is a track I love,” Piastri said. “It’s my favorite one of the year and, I don’t know, maybe that gave me a couple of extra tenths. It’s always good fun around here, when the car’s handling as well as it is today it’s a pleasure.”
Verstappen was pleased with second.
“Being P2 between the two McLarens in the Sprint Quali today was a really good result for us,” Verstappen said. “I think we maximised the performance of the car and I enjoyed it out there. The lap itself was good and the gap was big but it has been big since FP1 so that is not a surprise.
“We just have to focus on ourselves and work on the balance of the car and try to go faster, we need to do our own race. With the upgrades, it is always difficult on a Sprint weekend to say exactly how they have impacted the car, but we keep improving and keep trying to find more performance. Other teams will be doing the same thing and that’s just how it goes.”
Lando Norris was third in the second McLaren, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc taking fourth.
Esteban Ocon turned in a stellar qualifying effort, taking fifth for Haas F1.
