SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium: Max Verstappen, facing a 10-place grid penalty for taking a new engine, topped the times for Red Bull ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in a qualifying session run in mixed wet-and-dry conditions at the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday.
Leclerc will start Sunday’s race from pole position as he did in 2023 with Sergio Perez alongside him in the second Red Bull, the Mexican having ended a nightmare run of qualifying failures amid reports that his future with the team is at risk.
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth for Mercedes and will share the second row of the grid with McLaren’s Lando Norris, who qualified fifth ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri and George Russell in the second Mercedes.
Carlos Sainz was eighth in the second Ferrari in front of compatriot and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, Esteban Ocon of Alpine and Alex Albon of Williams — who will be 10th on the grid ahead of Verstappen.
“It was a nice qualifying and luckily the weather was ok,” said Verstappen, referring to earlier heavy rain that turned final practice into a washout. “It was raining a little bit, but we could do a decent session.
“I know I have to start 10 places back so this was the best I could do today and we’ll go from there. I don’t know quick we are going to be, but I hope we can be in the mix.”
Verstappen will be bidding to win the Belgian race for the fourth consecutive year, having won previously after taking grid penalties, but his car this year lacks the same clear superiority. Last year, he won from sixth. This year he starts 11th.
“It’s exactly the same as last year and, for me, it’s good as I didn’t expect that. We had tricky conditions and the rain helped us a bit and it’s good to be back at the front of the grid,” said Leclerc.
In steady but light rain, Norris led a train of cars from the pitlane for Q1, followed by both Haas cars and his McLaren team-mate Piastri, who was forced to drop to fourth by an exit by Kevin Magnussen that he described as “dangerous.”
A heavy shower was forecast by McLaren and this accelerated all 20 drivers to join the fray in pursuit of an early banker lap before the conditions deteriorated. All were on intermediates as Norris clocked 1:58.894 before being beaten by Piastri, in 1:57.411.
Verstappen then took over on top in 1:56.003 with Piastri threatening and taking second before rising to take command with five minutes to go in 1:55.549, before the Dutchman regained the ascendancy.
He clocked 1:54.938 to go six-tenths clear of Piastri while Norris struggled to match him and Russell fought to survive, rising from 17th to third in the final seconds of Q1.
Taking advantage of a problem for Verstappen, who was involved in a blocking incident with Zhou Guanyu’s Sauber, Piastri took top spot again in 1:54.835 ahead of Pierre Gasly.
The early departures were taken by the two Haas men, Nico Hulkenberg and Magnussen, RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who will start from the back of the grid after taking a penalty for new power unit parts, Logan Sargeant of Williams and Zhou.
Q2 began in similar fashion, with rain forecast and all 15 runners on track, Alex Albon setting the early pace for Williams before Norris took over in 1:54.459 and then Verstappen, in 1:53.857. All were on ‘inters’ again.
With five minutes to go, Russell and Leclerc, with fresh tires, were both in the drop-zone as the rain intensified. Russell reacted by leaping to fourth followed by Leclerc, taking third, and Hamilton up fifth.
Late faster laps from Perez, Ocon and Gasly pushed the Mercedes pair to go second and third while the under-pressure Perez survived by 0.003 seconds. Albon, Pierre Gasly of Alpine, Daniel Ricciardo of RB, Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll, whose Aston Martin team had rebuilt his car after his crash in FP3, missed the cut.
Hamilton was first out for Q3 and posted a lap in 1:54.011 as a marker.
On their first runs, only the two Red Bulls beat him, Verstappen going top in 1:53.159, leaving it all down to the final laps to decide the final grid order.
Penalized Max Verstappen tops qualifying, Charles Leclerc takes Belgium pole
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Penalized Max Verstappen tops qualifying, Charles Leclerc takes Belgium pole
- Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth for Mercedes
- Carlos Sainz was eighth in the second Ferrari in front of compatriot and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin
Da Costa claims first win with Jaguar in Jeddah E-Prix Round 5
- The Portuguese driver led home Sebastien Buemi, with reigning champion Oliver Rowland completing the podium
JEDDAH: Antonio Felix da Costa delivered a flawless performance to give Jaguar TCS Racing their first win of the 2026 season in Round 5 of the Jeddah E-Prix on Saturday.
The Portuguese driver led home Sebastien Buemi, with reigning champion Oliver Rowland completing the podium.
Da Costa was the first of the lead group to activate both of his mandatory 50kW all-wheel-drive attack mode boosts, using the strategy to pull clear of his rivals.
He held on to win by 2.5 seconds — his first victory for Jaguar and his first since Portland in 2024.
The race lead changed frequently as drivers battled in an energy-critical contest.
Buemi moved into second using an attack mode overlap to edge Rowland, who had also led early on. Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara, despite securing back-to-back pole positions, had to settle for fourth, adding strong points but leaving the team wishing for more.
Dan Ticktum narrowly beat teammate Pepe Marti to fifth, while Jaguar’s Mitch Evans finished seventh.
Round 4 winner Pascal Wehrlein of Porsche could only manage eighth, ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne in the Citroen and Taylor Barnard of DS Penske.
Race winner da Costa said the victory was especially satisfying given the challenges of adapting to life with Jaguar TCS Racing, describing the move as “a massive workload” with “a lot of things to learn and new faces and names.”
He said the result was a timely reward after several competitive outings that had not delivered the desired outcome.
“We’ve been having good pace but we haven’t been able to capitalise on it, so I’m happy to get this one done by Race 5,” he said.
He further explained that his decisive moment came when he was able to combine a small on-track gap with attack mode, noting that “only a big drama could really take this away from us.”
However, the closing stages were not without tension, as warning alarms flashed on his dashboard.
“I kept asking, ‘Do I need to manage something? Do I need to go slower?’” he said. “They told me to acknowledge the alarms and crack on. It was a little bit stressful, but it’s a great feeling when you know it’s only up to you to bring this one home.”
Buemi said his early decision to lead the race was driven by survival as much as strategy.
“If you fight for P3 or P4 it’s a jungle out there,” the Envision Racing driver said. “If you want to just survive you want to make sure you’re at the front.”
Buemi acknowledged that da Costa ultimately managed his energy more effectively, adding: “He was able to go flat out a bit longer than me and that’s why he made that gap.”
Reflecting on the result, he said finishing second was still a strong outcome after starting from the back of the grid the previous day.
Completing the podium, Rowland said overnight changes paid off after a difficult run of form.
“The last two races I struggled quite a lot, I just had no pace,” he said.
He praised his crew for working late into the night to turn things around, adding: “I just wanted to stay out of trouble.”
In the championship standings, Wehrlein leads Mortara by six points (68-62), with Rowland on 49. In the team table, Porsche is on 113 points to Jaguar’s 86, while in the Manufacturers’ World Championship, Porsche on 143 points lead Jaguar on 124.
