Ferarri locks-up front row for the Grand Prix of Belgium. Mercedes will start in row two.
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium—August 31st—Ferrari’s upgraded engine won’t be ready until next week’s race in Italy. But why wait? The Prancing Horse showed new-found robustness, running with what it has currently, by taking both front row spots this week in Belgium.
On Saturday afternoon, Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari 1-2, as the 21-year-old from Monaco recorded a 1:42:519 fastest time to take his third pole of the season. He finished ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes will run in third.
“It felt good,” Leclerc said afterward. “The first sector is not what I wanted, but we had to go slow there because we had a lot of traffic. I struggled a bit, from the second corner, but after that, we were very strong. I asked the team to come out at a different time because I wanted to be alone, but it worked out good, and I am very happy.”
Leclerc very much dominated the entire weekend, taking every session except for the opening one, which Vettel won. But Leclerc had no trouble this day, bettering his fastest time (at the last moment). He remained in front of a long-crowded pack of drivers, who could not quite better his time.
Hamilton was fortunate following a heavy crash in the morning’s third practice session.
Carlos Sainz Jr., Dani Kvyat, and newly demoted Toro Rosso driver Pierre Gasly, never made it out of session one. Lando Norris and the American Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean joined them following their failed attempts to make it out of session two.
Valtteri Bottas finished in fourth overall, while Max Verstappen, who again suffered underpowered engine issues, ended in fifth. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg took sixth and seventh, respectively, despite having engine changes for race day, which will demote them five places. They both had their best qualifying session this season.
Eighth went to Kimi Raikkonen with Sergio Perez (another victim of engine demotion) finishing ninth. The other Haas F1 driver, Kevin Magnussen, took tenth.
Although both Ferraris were dominant in qualifying, their Mercedes rivals were better on race pace. And that worries Leclerc. “We were struggling more with the race pace, and we need to work on that,” he said.
