Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli took a scintillating pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix, leaving team-mate and title rival George Russell trailing in fourth, more than 0.5 seconds adrift.
The Italian, who leads the championship from Russell by 25 points, beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.317secs, even though the four-time champion had the help of a tow from team-mate Isack Hadjar.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was an impressive third, 0.440secs back, despite bailing on his final lap, but the world champion has a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his allowance of engine parts.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were fifth and sixth, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and the upgraded Racing Bull of British rookie Arvid Lindblad.
Antonelli has looked the man to beat since topping Friday practice and he delivered on his potential with his sixth pole position in 10 races so far this year.
On the slowing down lap, he sent his best wishes to his father Marco, who is celebrating his 61st birthday on Saturday.
Red Bull employed Hadjar to help Verstappen with a slipstream on the long flat-out section to the final chicane as the Frenchman has a 30-place grid penalty for taking a new engine, which puts him over the limit for the year.
Verstappen said: “It was definitely helping me otherwise I would not be standing here, it would be P6 or something.
“Isack, knowing he had a penalty and would be starting at the back, he helped me. I will be looking in my mirrors tomorrow. But we are happy to be on the front row with how we executed it as a team.”
Norris and McLaren had not been expecting much when they arrived at Spa, thinking they would continue as the fourth fastest team.
But the car has worked well all weekend and Norris has been especially competitive – he was 0.215secs quicker than Piastri despite not doing a second lap.
“We haven’t changed anything, we are just little quicker here,” said Norris, who will start 13th. “It’s a shame we are not starting here but there is plenty of opportunity, it is a long race and it’s good for overtaking, hopefully we can put on a good show tomorrow.”
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