McLaren shock in Spa: Piastri unmatched by Verstappen and obliterates the field

With Oscar Piastri having showed ominous pace in FP1 at Belgium, he was favourite to take sprint pole ahead of his rivals. As the drivers completed their first push laps, the Australian led the pack with Max Verstappen and Lando Norris placing P2 and P3 as they have in the first and only practice session.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli spun at Stavelot kicking loads of gravel onto the track. Lewis Hamilton had an oversteer moment at that exact same spot, losing seven tenths as per F1's calculations leaving him in P18. His teammate Charles Leclerc slotted in P8.

Fernando Alonso, George Russell, Isack Hadjar, Lance Stroll were all ahead of the Monegasque, with Carlos Sainz and Gabriel Bortoleto closing off the top ten.

Piastri's first push lap was deleted for exceeding track limits at the top of Eau Rouge, however, the gap to his teammate was quite alarming. Verstappen then revealed his hand, and set a lap that would've contended with the Australian's top effort.

At the end of the session, Charles Leclerc put himself in P2, with Esteban Ocon in P3. Lando Norris on the verge of elimination went up to P1 demoting everyone down a place in his last fast lap as the clock was ticking down, including Yuki Tsunoda who fell to P12, and was thus elimnated from the remainder of the qualifying session with Piastri making it through in P9.

The drivers ran the clock down in the garage and readied themselves for a high-pressure all or nothing one flying lap push. Norris led the field out the garage followed by Verstappen.

Verstappen went quicker around the first sector, with Norris edging him out by a tenth. But Piastri went quicker than the Briton in the end taking provisional pole. But Piastri brought the times down by 4 tenths.