Oscar Piastri loves Spa and so does the 2025 McLaren Formula 1 car, so his sprint pole margin of almost half a second isn't so surprising.
The combination was in a class of one, although Piastri made harder work of it than necessary in only just scraping through SQ2 into the top 10 after his initial lap there was deleted for track limits.
But once he was through, his advantage was resounding, over both Max Verstappen and his own team-mate Lando Norris.
"It's a track I love, probably my favourite of the year," Piastri said. "Maybe that gave me a couple of tenths but when the car was handling as well as it does… it's been in a good window from lap one and I'm confident.
"My last few weekends have been good for pace but not results, so it was good to get [this] today."
The Spa version of McLaren's rear wing/beam wing combination is far more efficient than what it had here last year – and was giving the same downforce for a significantly lower wing level.
Together with the effectiveness of the MCL39's underfloor, that aero efficiency was irresistible around the circuit with the most conflicted demands of drag and downforce seen all season.
It left the Red Bull rather breathless and needing to be run in skinny-winged form, allowing Verstappen to be super quick in sector one but relying heavily upon his own skills to be anywhere near through the fast curves of the middle sector.
It was that middle sector where most of Piastri's 0.477s pole margin came from.
The slow corners were where the Red Bull's downforce deficit showed up most: Verstappen was actually faster than either of the McLarens through Pouhon (292km/h for Piastri, 296 for Verstappen) but when it comes to the sub-200km/h of Fagnes (Turns 12-13) and the Red Bull's rear ride height comes up, the McLaren eats it alive. Between there and the rest of sector two the Red Bull loses over 0.4s.
But how Verstappen got himself between the two McLarens shows that in its first post-Christian Horner race, even with Verstappen's usual engineer Gianpiero Lambiase not present, Red Bull remains the slickest operation around.
It played its part in Norris' scrappy performance.
First of all, Verstappen's speed in SQ2 alerted McLaren that no way was its advantage big enough to have the luxury of fuelling up for a push-charge-push sequence in SQ3 (as it had done in SQ2). It had been caught out like that before on occasion last year. No, its cars would have to be fuelled for a single flyer just like everyone else, and going out late to catch the track at its best.
McLaren had also just witnessed how spectacularly fast the track grip could ramp up, as various drivers behind the wheels of Haas, Williams, Racing Bulls, Sauber and Alpine had almost pushed Piastri out of SQ2 as he made his second flyer on tyres which had been used to set his disallowed lap (for track limits at Raidillon).
As SQ3 counted down and no one went out, Red Bull was holding Verstappen and intensely watching McLaren, two garages down. The moment Norris was released from his garage, Red Bull inserted Verstappen immediately into the gap between Norris and Piastri.
With Verstappen in his mirrors, Norris needed to ensure he didn't give him a tow and so pushed hard on the out-lap to establish a good gap. Probably a little too hard for the C4 tyres which are super-stressed around here.
Between the end of the pitlane and the bridge before Fagnes in sector two, Norris on his out-lap was seven seconds faster than Verstappen, six seconds faster than Piastri.
Although Norris then drove sector three quite conservatively, he did not have the tyre grip of Piastri through the first few corners.
"Not quick enough, I guess," said Lando. "It wasn't the cleanest of laps but still quite a big gap to the top… some things to work on."
It just highlighted Piastri's perfect job and how Verstappen and Red Bull continue to squeeze everything from a car not as good. Furthermore, that low wing setting gives Verstappen a big straightline speed advantage at the end of the straights, where the passing zones are.
"Spa is probably the worst track to have pole position for," admitted Piastri, "but the pace of the car is really strong."
