Qualifying at Spa: despite a savage performance for Verstappen, a penalty gives Leclerc pole!

(Cover picture: Motorsportweek.com)

Only a penalty could stop a Max Verstappen in overwhelming form, and so it was. Despite a qualifying lap eight tenths quicker than his closest chaser - this time it was Leclerc, the 5-place grid penalty for changing the gearbox on his RB19 means the Dutchman will only start sixth in the race. In any case, a position which does not preclude him from any race win ambition, such is the advantage he has over the competition here at Spa-Francorchamps.

There are the standings at the end of the qualifying session on the historic Belgian track:

Wet qualifying, in the end the DRS helps Red Bull out

Qualifying was held largely on a wet track, until - just before the start of Q3 - the Race Direction allowed the use of the DRS, a circumstance that usually occurs when the stewards judge the track to be sufficiently dry.

Michael Potts / Motorsport Images

The decision was fair, given that the dry line was wide enough at that point, but which still gave Red Bull an advantage. Why?

We know that the RB19 "diffuser / beam wing / rear wing / DRS" assembly is the most aerodynamically efficient this year, so whenever there are conditions to use the adjustable flap, Verstappen and Perez benefit greatly. This doesn't occur only when the Milton Keynes engineers decide to opt for a high downforce aero setup, if convinced that there's more laptime to be gained in the corners than on the straights.

"In Q2 we were all very close, in very difficult conditions because the track was drying quickly: on my last lap I didn't have the confidence to push harder... I was very lucky to be in tenth position. In Q3, with two sets of tyres, you know you can risk a little more, and that's what we did on the last lap. I'll have to drop back on Sunday with the penalty I have, but it was the best I could do today"

Max Verstappen

The last Hungarian GP was an example in that sense, but - without digressing further - it would be wrong to think that the best laptime of this Friday was only due to the DRS: it may have contributed by 3 tenths at most, but the remaining half a second that Max gave to Charles, Lewis and his teammate Checo would have kept him comfortably on pole either way.

Excellent performance for Ferrari with both drivers. Did McLaren "melt" in Q3?

The second position of Charles Leclerc (later to become first) and the fifth of Carlos Sainz (later to become fourth) represent a good starting point for building a race with the podium as a goal: the setup chosen for the two SF-23s is a medium-low downforce one, which as long as in Q1 and Q2 created some headaches, on the dry tarmac of the Q3 session it was a strong point.

Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Also in the race, according to the weather forecasts which exclude big chances of rain, having a low downforce level can be a strength in the defense phase, one which makes you capable of neutralizing the pace of fastest cars behind. On the other hand, as always, this means delegating the quest for grip that the car is unable to provide to the tyres, which has negative repercussions on their degradation.

"It wasn't a bad qualifying for us, especially in these conditions. It's always difficult to put everything together, but I worked a lot in these conditions, as I didn't feel very comfortable a few races ago. And it seems that this paid off, even if pole wasn't for us today: Max was too fast. Having said that, we have an excellent starting position for Sunday. We'll see how it goes, there's still a lot of work to do to catch up with the Red Bulls"

Charles Leclerc

Since the Spa weekend is one of 6 in the season with a Sprint format, just a free practice session was held in the morning: if we add to this that the heavy rain reduced the action on track to the bare minimum, it's clear how no team has race pace and tyre wear data in hand. Also for this reason, the choice adopted by Ferrari seems at the very least courageous: if it turns out to be thoughtless, only the 44 laps of the race on Sunday will tell...

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

In the comparison between the two drivers, the two tenths (0.164 s, to be precise) with which Leclerc prevails over Sainz appear to be a gap in line with the performances that the two have shown over the course of the year, if we exclude particular conditions that have exacerbated one or the other from time to time. Despite the small gap, however, between the two Ferrari drivers there are Perez and Hamilton, with the latter more effective than his teammate Russell mainly due to a more "dry" setup.

"The track conditions were tricky, every time we came out of the pits we found an ever-changing situation. We managed to do some good laps in Q1 and Q2, then in Q3, but honestly the last lap wasn't one of the best: I had a moment between turn 8 and turn 9 which probably cost me a few positions, but overall I'm happy that I managed to get to Q3 in difficult conditions, finishing fourth moreover"

Carlos Sainz

"Everything was very hectic, because the track was drying all the time: every lap was faster than the previous, and in terms of setup it was difficult to go from wet to dry... let's hope we did it right! I felt very good the car, even though we lost a lot of time in the second sector. In the end, we were a long way from Max, his laptime was impressive. We're still satisfied with our starting point"

Lewis Hamilton

Those who opted for a completely "wet" set-up (therefore with extremely loaded wings in the hope that the rain would continue to fall even in Q3) were the two McLarens. Given the parc fermè rules that prevent any setup change in view of the race, Piastri and Norris now find themselves with two MCL60s as effective in the corners of Spa as slow down the straights.

Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

And it must be said that it's a shame that Q3 was held in dry conditions, because the first two qualifying manches had shown Oscar Piastri to be the quickest overall: if the track hadn't dried up so quickly, we would most likely have witnessed the first - and well deserved - pole position for the young Australian driver instead of a meagre P6 (which becomes P5 after the penalty for Verstappen).

"I'm happy with P6 in qualifying, although I think I could have extracted something more in Q3. We were very fast up to that point, but then the track dried out a lot, and that was my first dry lap at Spa in a Formula 1 car. I was hoping it would stay a little wetter, but overall it's not bad. We'll see what we can do from there"

Oscar Piastri

Lando Norris was less at ease throughout the afternoon, but this time due to a driving mistake: at the end of Q1 a "snap" approaching the last sector forced him to take run into the gravel trap, which compromised his floor - and with it the laptimes in the following manches. Being in P7 immediately behind his teammate Piastri is still a good result for Norris, an almost perfect damage limitation.

The Alpines eliminated in Q2, in the worst moment for the team

At Alpine, the situation is getting worse and worse: in the morning a series of announcements came about the dismissal of part of the team's senior staff. Above all, the key figures to leave the Enstone team are the Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer and the Sporting Director Alan Permane. The latter had been in Alpine (previously Benetton, Lotus and Renault) for 35 years: firing an engineer of his stature says a lot about the difficult moment of the French team.

These layoffs are part of a broader picture, in which the entire team is undergoing an all round reconstruction: only a short time ago it was the CEO Laurent Rossi (very tough at the beginning of 2023 in judging the work in the first races) who abandoned Enstone to make way for Philippe Krief.

In addition to this, also the Technical Director Pat Fry is leaving Alpine. Recognizing the bad momentum for the English-French team, he managed to move to Williams, thus continuing a career in Formula 1 which also includes some World Titles.

Michael Potts / Motorsport Images

In this context, the qualifying of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly was subdued: both eliminated in Q2, with Ocon himself who had a small incident out of turn 9 that damaged his Alpine and excluded him from the final qualifying phase.

"It wasn't an easy day on track and I'm sorry I didn't get into Q3. The weather conditions made the session difficult for everyone, but unfortunately I hit the wall in Turn 9, which damaged the car and prevented us from doing a second lap on Softs when the track was at its best.Tomorrow we have the chance to score points with the Sprint Race, so we will certainly aim for a good result, while on Sunday it will be tough to start from P15 on the grid. Anyway, we'll give the maximum"

Esteban Ocon

Daniel Ricciardo out in Q1, but the confidence with his Alpha Tauri is increasing...

At the tail end of the qualifying analysis for this Belgian Grand Prix, we need to talk for a moment about the performance of Daniel Ricciardo (in P19), this time defeated by the internal battle with Yuki Tsunoda (in P11).

Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

The Australian driver had managed to complete a lap in Q1 that would have allowed him to progress in Q2, but the reason why this lap was canceled (due to corner cutting in turn 4) is explained by Daniel himself...

"I tried to go flat out into Eau Rouge. I went full throttle and I felt the car start to move, so I had to lift a bit and that took me a bit off line... At at that point I was in the wettest part of the track, and I really couldn't do much more: I had to let the car slip... I think that on that lap, even without Eau Rouge, I probably could have gained more laptime. Today's result is frustrating and disappointing: obviously there are still things we can improve, but it's a shame to start Sunday from the bottom of the grid"

Daniel Ricciardo

The Saturday programme in Belgium includes the Sprint Shootout (at 12.00 CET) and the Sprint over a distance of 15 laps, starting at 16.30 CET. The whole programme is - however - currently threatened by the risk of rain, so it's not excluded that there will be some changes in case the track becomes undrivable.

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