Piastri Claims Pole for 2025 Belgian Sprint

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri survived a scare to claim pole for the 2025 Belgian Sprint at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium. 

Piastri topped Practice and SQ1 but was almost eliminated in SQ2 but recovered with a single SQ3 flier to snatch pole ahead of Belgium-born Max Verstappen, who qualified second in Red Bull’s first race following Christian Horner’s sacking.

Now, here is a roundup of all the action across practice and sprint qualifying around Spa Francorchamps.

 

Practice

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg was the first driver to hit the track in a busy start to the session and set 1m 47.752 as the initial benchmark, but his time was soon usurped by several drivers as Verstappen set the pace with 1m 45.545 as only Red Bull and Haas drivers ran the medium tyre rather than hard compound.

Verstappen lowered his benchmark to 1m 44.236 in the 14th minute but was displaced a further four minutes later as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc posted 1m 44.148, which put him top at the halfway mark from Piastri and Verstappen as the trio were split by 0.088 seconds.

Although Alpine’s Franco Colapinto was the first driver to switch to the soft tyre, many drivers left the soft-tyre Qualifying simulations until the last ten minutes, which saw Lance Stroll initially go quickest until Piastri went faster with 1m 42,123 and 0.989s clear of the Canadian.

Piastri eventually found more time to top the sole practice session with 1m 42.022 ahead of Verstappen and Norris.

Mercedes’ George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli plus Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson however did their quickest times at the end on medium tyres, as did Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Haas’ Oliver Bearman – although Bearman made an error at Stavelot on his soft-tyre flier.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1m 42.022
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.404
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.504
4	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.576
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.906
6	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 0.957
7	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 1.063
8	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.090
9	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 1.098
10	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	+ 1.100
11	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 1.195
12	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 1.239
13	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	+ 1.240
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+ 1.448
15	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 1.456
16	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 1.548
17	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.907
18	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	+ 2.470
19	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 2.825
20	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 3.055

 

Sprint Qualifying

SQ1

Hadjar was first out on track and set 1m 42.711 as the initial benchmark but Russell and Norris soon displaced him at the summit, before Piastri set 1m 41.769 to go quickest in the seventh minute to top the opening segment.

Once almost everyone set a lap time, Hamilton, Gasly, Colapinto, Antonelli and Bearman found themselves in the bottom five – although Antonelli spun at Stavelot on his first flier after he lost the rear end as he put on the throttle whilst Bearman’s lap time was deleted.

At the checkered flag, Hamilton spun at the Bus Stop chicane to condemn himself to a 18th-placed start for the sprint ahead of Colapinto who outqualified Antonelli as the Italian qualified last.

Hulkenberg will start 17th behind Albon who will begin the sprint from 16th on the grid as Bearman and Gasly scraped through on their final fliers.

 

SQ2

A quiet start saw only Norris and Piastri venture out with Norris setting 1m 42.182 as the benchmark, but Piastri went 0.446s quicker only for his lap time to be deleted due to track limits.

Everyone else opted to wait until the closing minutes to set their lap times as Verstappen went quickest from Leclerc with two minutes left on 1m 41.583, which was faster than Piastri’s initial fastest lap in the segment prior to deletion.

At the checkered flag, both McLaren drivers flirted with the drop as track evolution suddenly ramped up but Norris recovered to top the segment with 1m 41.412.

Piastri meanwhile scraped in by 0.041s ahead of Lawson who qualified 11th ahead of; Tsunoda, Russell, Alonso and Stroll.

 

SQ3

A quiet start to the final segment saw nobody venture out in the opening four minutes until McLaren unleashed Norris and Piastri, albeit split by Verstappen who joined in between the pair.

Norris set 1m 41.182 as the benchmark but Verstappen went 0.141s quicker, yet the reigning four-time champion got beaten by Piastri who took pole for the sprint with 1m 40.510 which was a new track record around the circuit.

Leclerc, Ocon, Sainz, Bearman, Gasly, Hadjar and Bortoleto rounded out the top ten, with Bearman’s seventh-placed finish having marked his highest qualifying result across both sprint and traditional qualifying this season.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1m 40.510
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.477
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.618
4	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.768
5	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 1.055
6	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 1.251
7	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 1.347
8	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.449
9	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	+ 1.461
10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	+ 1.666
11	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	1m 42.169
12	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull	+ 0.015
13	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.161
14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 0.284
15	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 0.663
16	Alex Albon	Williams	1m 43.212
17	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+ 0.005
18	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 0.196
19	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 0.375
20	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 2.182