2023-07-28 17:29:22
The specter of a cancellation of the qualifying session, due to bad weather conditions, hovered over this Belgian Grand Prix, but in the end nothing happened. If the rain was present on Friday, it quickly gave way to a few rays of sunshine and the repeated passages of the single-seaters on the Ardennes circuit finally helped to dry out the track, to the point of being able to put on the front slick tires. even the end of Q2.
In these changing but tricky conditions, Max Verstappen has achieved a new tour de force. The double world champion, however, fumbled in the first minutes and he pulled out of Q2 by a hair’s breadth, setting the 10th time, before coming out of the woods in the last part of qualifying. For the 8th time of the season, the Dutchman set the best time, in 1’46″168 at the wheel of his Red Bull flanked by the n°1 and stuck at the same time more than eight tenths to his nearest pursuer , Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).
Verstappen penalized, Leclerc inherits pole position
The Dutchman will not start in the lead of the GP for all that. Penalized for a gearbox change, Verstappen will have to drop five places on the starting grid on Sunday. It is therefore Leclerc who inherits the pole position, his 20th career, and who will open the road this Sunday. He will share the front row with Sergio Perez (Red Bull). Behind him will start Lewis Hamilton (3rd) and Carlos Sainz (4th).
The top 5 is completed by Oscar Piastri who edged his teammate Lando Norris by more than three tenths. The two McLaren drivers were quick throughout this session and confirm the good form of the Oranges for a few races, which might allow them to score important points in view of the fight for fifth place with Alpine. For George Russell (8th) or Fernando Alonso (9th), the session was more complicated.
Ocon at fault in Q2
In a period of deep turmoil in their stable, the French Alpine pilots did not cross Q2. Pierre Gasly will start 12th on Sunday and Esteban Ocon 15th. The first simply recognized that his car did not have the pace to aim for Q3 while the second made a mistake in turn 9, damaging his wing. Ocon admitted his mistake but blamed his team for a lack of anticipation that did not allow him to change the play and go back for one last attempt.
“It is not the error that eliminates us in Q2, declared Ocon at the microphone of Canal +. It’s a mistake I rarely make, of course, it’s for me, I damaged the front wing, but we had nothing else damaged, so we just had to go in, change it , keep the tires and it was back in Q3 today. I don’t know where the wing was, but when I stopped, we didn’t have it and we mightn’t change it. Suddenly, we didn’t have enough time to go out and take a walk. I need to talk to the guys to find out what happened. »
While waiting for Sunday’s race (3:00 p.m.), Saturday will be devoted to the sprint, with qualifying at noon and the race at 4:30 p.m.
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