Norris beats Piastri to Spa pole, Hamilton's nightmare continues

Lando Norris narrowly beat McLaren Formula 1 team-mate Oscar Piastri to pole position for the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix, as Lewis Hamilton’s nightmare weekend continued with a Q1 exit.

Norris has looked a step behind Piastri over one lap so far during this Spa F1 weekend, but Norris delivered when it mattered most in Q3 to take pole by just under a tenth of a second.

The track appeared to lose grip in Q3 as the temperature climbed slightly and the pole lap came on the first runs as Norris punched in a 1m40.562s best.

Both McLarens did a 1m46s lap on their second runs, Piastri’s the fractionally quicker of the two, but although he improved on his first run with that lap, a mistake at Stavelot left him a disappointed second, 0.085s down on Norris.

Max Verstappen’s Red Bull ran a slightly bigger rear wing for this session compared to the one he used to overtake Piastri and win the sprint earlier on Saturday, but Verstappen complained of “no grip” at the start of his crucial Q3 lap and he ended up losing out to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.

Leclerc told Ferrari “I don’t think there is much more” after setting a 1m41.084s lap to go fourth in Q2, but he dug deep to improve to a 1m40.900s best in Q3, beating Verstappen to third on the grid by 0.003s.

Alex Albon was the star of the midfield runners, his Williams beating George Russell’s Mercedes to fifth by 0.059s.

Yuki Tsunoda enjoyed his best qualifying session since being promoted to Red Bull, finishing up seventh quickest and just under four tenths behind Verstappen.

Isack Hadjar beat Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson to eighth on the grid as just 0.127s blanketed the fifth to ninth quickest cars in Q3.

Gabriel Bortoleto’s Sauber rounded out the top 10 after his first Q3 lap was deleted for a track limits offence at Pouhon.

The Haas drivers narrowly missed out on taking a place in the top 10 in Q2, so they will fill the sixth row of the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Esteban Ocon, running less downforce than team-mate Ollie Bearman, fell just two hundredths of a second short of Albon’s top-10 time, while Bearman paid the price for being stuck in traffic at the end of his preparation lap, the resulting cold tyres creating a wheelspin out of La Source (Turn 1) that meant he ended up just under a tenth behind Ocon.

Bearman also narrowly avoided a huge accident through Pouhon (Turn 10) on his first flying lap.

Gasly couldn’t repeat his recent Q3 heroics for Alpine, ending up 0.128s away from the top 10 and joining Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber and Carlos Sainz’s Williams in Q2 elimination.

Hamilton’s miserable weekend continues

Lewis Hamilton’s nightmare weekend continued as he was eliminated in Q1 after a track limits offence at Radillon on his final flying lap.

Having spun out of SQ1 on Friday, Hamilton was facing elimination again in GP qualifying as he sat in the bottom five as the session reached its climax.

Hamilton’s final lap was comfortably good enough for the top 15, but losing that deleted lap relegated him back to 16th and allowed Bortoleto’s Sauber to sneak into Q2 by 0.031s.

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“It's incredibly painful,” Hamilton said. “It's turning out to be a pretty bad weekend so far.”

Aston Martin also endured a miserable session, suffering its worst combined qualifying result since returning to F1 in 2021 and its first double Q1 elimination since May’s Miami Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll ended up filling the last two spots on the timing sheet, behind Franco Colapinto’s Alpine and Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes.

Stroll’s session began with a bizarre pitlane collision with Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber, which the stewards will investigate.

As Sauber tried to force Hulkenberg into the queue to exit the pits, Stroll ran over the Sauber’s front wing.

Sauber quickly swapped the nose on Hulkenberg’s car, but Stroll had to pit at the end of his outlap for repairs

Belgian Grand Prix provisional grid

1 Lando Norris (McLaren)
2 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
5 Alex Albon (Williams)
6 George Russell (Mercedes)
7 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
8 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
9 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
10 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
11 Esteban Ocon (Haas)
12 Ollie Bearman (Haas)
13 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
14 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
15 Carlos Sainz (Williams)
16 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
17 Franco Colapinto (Williams)
18 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
19 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
20 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)