Formula 1

Leclerc takes pole in slippery Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying session

author:

7.27.2024

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Teams toyed with their strategies to manage the evolving track conditions. Here's what happened:

Teams were scrambling to set lap times while dodging poor track conditions. In Q1, the final seconds were critical with teams leapfrogging one another. Haas was the only team that couldn't get at least one driver through to Q2
Q2 started with a dryer track and saw lap times improve, yet the final minutes were challenged by another rain cell drizzling on the circuit
Lance Stroll couldn't improve his fortune after a FP3 crash. The Canadian Driver's best lap time in Q2 only put him in P15
Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, and Carlos Sainz saved their best times until the very end, putting Sergio Perez 0.003 above the drop zone. Alex Albon, despite his best efforts, fell just short of Checo
Charles Leclerc pieced together an excellent final lap, jumping past Sergio Perez to finish P2. Max Verstappen finished P1, but his -10 place grid penalty means Charles will start the race at the front of the grid
Lewis Hamilton and both McLarens trailed the top 3 by less than 0.4s

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Topping off a hectic qualifying are the penalties:

Max Verstappen receives a 10-place grid penalty for taking his fifth internal combustion engine (ICE) for the season, one more than the limit. This means that Charles Leclerc will start from P1
Yuki Tsunoda also replaced a significant number of power unit (PU) components, including his ICE, turbocharger, motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K), motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), and energy store. This amounts to a 60-place grid penalty which puts him squarely in P20
After the session, the stewards imposed a 3-place grid penalty to Guanyu Zhou for impeding Max Verstappen. Zhou, who qualified P20, will provisionally still start from P19 as Yuki Tsunoda's penalty is more severe

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Position	Driver Name	Team	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:53.159
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:53.754
3	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing	1:53.765
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:53.835
5	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:53.981
6	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:54.027
7	George Russell	Mercedes	1:54.184
8	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:54.477
9	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:54.765
10	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:54.810
11	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:54.473
12	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:54.635
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Visa Cash App RB	1:54.682
14	Valtteri Bottas	Stake F1 Team	1:54.764
15	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:55.716
16	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas F1 Team	1:56.308
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	1:56.500
18	Yuki Tsunoda	Visa Cash App RB	1:56.593
19	Logan Sargeant	Williams	1:57.230
20	Guanyu Zhou	Stake F1 Team	1:57.775