Round 13/23: Review of the Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying

Max Verstappen clinched his 27th career pole position at SPA in drying conditions with an absolute masterclass of a lap by pulling eight-tengths over Charles Leclerc in P2. The dutchman has a five place grid penalty for exceeding his gearbox allowance and will be starting in P6 on Sunday for the race. Sergio Perez finished in P3 ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz rounding up the top 5.

Coming to the longest track in the season at 7.004 kms length, it was unclear whether qualifying would go ahead with heavy rain around after FP1 due to visibility conditions. However, with rain being absent thankfully during the entirety of qualifying, it was a drying track that was on show today which meant better times with each passing lap. The times toppled starting from over two minutes at the start of Q1 to 1:46.168 at the end of Q3. Let us now go into the in detail analysis of what happened in the qualifying starting with Q1.

Q1

At the start of Q1, the track was considerably wet meaning all drivers opted to start on the Intermediate tyres. Times tumbled from the start with every lap and any mistakes from drivers even pertaining to track limits would prove costly as laps set by them would prove to be useless in few minutes. Lando Norris had an incident where he ran wide possibly damaging his floor and barely made it into Q2 ending up in P14.

The Hass of Nico Hulkenberg who has arguably been the star of qualifying in 2023 found himself dead last with a poor showing and being out qualified by his teammate Kevin Magnussen who made it to Q2. Daniel Ricciardo put in a lap that was safe to get into Q3 but track limits cost him his lap and his place in Q2. The Williams of Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant could not find their pace in the wet Q1 in a slippery car that lacks downforce and finished in P16 and P18. The last car to be out in qualifying was the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu in P17.

Q2

Q2 started on the intermediates and with the track drying quickly, towards the mid of the session the slicks were the preferred tyres. By the five minute cut off almost all the remaining drivers were on the softs. Though, the initial lap was a second to two slower than the times set on intermediates, by the second runs the tyres were hot enough to pull considerable advantage over the intermediates.

It was Max Verstappen who was in danger at the end of Q2 and made it through by the barest of margins in P10. Max had opted for a fast lap - cool lap - fast lap strategy as suggested by Red Bull & lost considerable heat in his tyres during the cool lap which ultimately cost him pace in his final run in Q2. The Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were out in Q2 with Esteban hitting the barricades and breaking the end plate on his front wing. Things at Alpine are currently not at the best with Otmar Szafnauer and Alan Permane being fired from their roles and that was evident in the execution during the qualifying, the team unable to find the front wing replacement for Esteban quickly enough costing him his final run in Q2.

Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas finished in P13 and P14. Yuki Tsunoda out qualified his teammate this weekend by making it into Q2 and finishing in P11. Oscar Piastri topped the charts and was arguably one of the stars of the qualifying. Going into Q3, he was definitely one of the favorites to clinch his maiden pole position.

Q3

Piastri was on fire through out the qualifying pulling incredible times in every one of his laps. It was the first time that he dominated his teammate so thoroughly and whether it was Norris’s floor damage is a cause for this is not yet clear. Charles Leclerc was another surprise at the top this weekend having had average runs in similar condition earlier at Spain and Canada. Charles promised he wanted to improve in these conditions and he secured an impressive P2 and for a while was on provisional pole.

Piastri was on a flying lap in Sector 1 and 2 during his final run but lost time heavily in Sector 3. Max after his Q2 debacles produced a brilliant final lap with all three purple sectors giving him 8 tenths over Charles. Perez pulled in a decent qualifying session and with Max’s penalty he would be starting finally in the front row. The Mercedes and Aston Martins were almost anonymous this weekend except Lewis Hamilton who put in a final lap which gave him P4.

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