How costly was Verstappen's mistake? Provisional starting grid for Belgian GP

With sprint action wrapped up—featuring Oscar Piastri’s pole and Max Verstappen’s sprint race win—the Belgian GP qualifying has given us the starting grid for tomorrow’s race, the real highlight of the weekend.

Leading the pack, unsurprisingly, will be a McLaren. This time, however, it’s Lando Norris who takes pole position, edging out his teammate by just 85 thousandths of a second in the final moments.

Charles Leclerc secured a fantastic third place, once again stepping up for Ferrari by putting his SF-25 in third—just three thousandths ahead of Max Verstappen.

This time, the Dutchman wasn’t able to repeat the magic from the sprint qualifying, making a small mistake at Turn 1 that ultimately compromised his lap.

Fifth place went to an equally impressive Alexander Albon, who put his Williams in fifth, just ahead of George Russell.

Finally, a positive qualifying for Yuki Tsunoda, who finished seventh ahead of the two Racing Bulls.

Closing out the top ten is Gabriel Bortoleto, who’s starting to get a taste for competing near the front.

Disaster once again for Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli, just like yesterday. The seven-time world champion had his time deleted in Q1, leaving him out with the sixteenth fastest time. The Italian fared even worse, finishing eighteenth after another difficult session.