Antonelli Claims Pole For 2026 Belgian GP

Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli claimed pole position for the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. 

Antonelli beat Belgian-born Max Verstappen to pole position in a competitive finish to Qualifying whilst McLaren’s Lando Norris qualified third-quickest but will start 13th on the grid due to a power unit related penalty.

 

FP3

After a slow start to the session, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto was first to leave the pit lane in the fourth minute but he opted for a practice start at the pit exit, which led Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas to set 1m 52.228 as the initial benchmark time on the soft tyre in the eighth minute.

Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar displaced him on the medium tyres with 1m 48.231, before Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad then Liam Lawson went fastest on the soft tyres, only for Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton to set 1m 47.436 in the 14th minute as the quickest time.

Lindblad displaced him with 1m 47.342 four minutes later but Hamilton responded with 1m 46.789  in the 19th minute, but Antonelli waited until the 28th minute to go quickest with 1m 45.990 on his first flier.

Nobody could get close to his lap time once the attention switched to soft tyre qualifying simulations, as Norris fell 0.139 seconds shy with 12 minutes left, whilst Antonelli failed to improve on his own best time on his qualifying simulation but still topped the session.

Hamilton’s session however came to a dramatic finish after he ran wide on entry to Campus and clipped the outside barrier with his rear-right tyre, which forced him to stop on the inside of Stavelot.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	1m 45.990
2	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.139
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.148
4	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.367
5	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 0.392
6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.760
7	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.795
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	+ 0.934
9	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	+ 1.059
10	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull	+ 1.106
11	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+ 1.186
12	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 1.700
13	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 1.924
14	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 1.930
15	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.959
16	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 2.000
17	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	+ 2.654
18	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 2.702
19	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 2.740
20	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	+ 3.000
21	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 4.165
22	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 4.641

 

Qualifying

Q1

Stroll was the first driver out on track but aborted his opening flier which left Bottas to set 1m 50.011 which was bettered by Perez who went 0.704s quicker than his teammate.

Norris eventually found himself quickest of everyone after the opening runs, whilst the bottom six comprised of; Colapinto, Ocon, Perez, Bottas, Alonso and Stroll with eight minutes left in the segment.

At the checkered flag, Colapinto improved to 13th which ultimately came at the expense of Albon who was eliminated in 17th, as Bearman survived by 0.007s.

Ocon qualified 18th ahead of Bottas, Perez, Alonso and Stroll.

 

Q2

After an early Q2 lull, Colapinto was the first driver to head on track and set 1m 47.086 as the initial benchmark, which was quickly usurped as Antonelli set 1m 45.142 to go fastest.

Once everyone set their first lap times of the segment, Lawson, Gasly, Hulkenberg, Colapinto, Sainz and Bearman found themselves in the bottom six – although Sainz and Bearman had set their lap times on used soft tyres unlike everyone else.

Once the checkered flag fell, none of the bottom six escaped as Lawson missed out on Q3 by 0.038s to Bortoleto, whilst Gasly qualified 12th ahead of Colapinto who improved to 13th position.

Hulkenberg qualified 14th but stopped on the run to Pouhon with a hydraulic leak which delayed the start of Q3 by three minutes whilst his car was recovered, as Sainz and Bearman rounded out the eliminations in 15th and 16th positions respectively.

 

Q3

Hadjar was first out on track on used soft tyres and set 1m 4 as the benchmark time but due to a back-of-the-grid penalty, he aborted his first flying lap and gave Verstappen a slipstream tow which saw the Dutchman post 1m 44.984 as the benchmark.

Antonelli seconds later went 0.144s quicker but Norris produced a shock 1m 44.801 to put himself on provisional pole despite having received a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding part of his power unit components allowance.

Leclerc slotted into third ahead of Verstappen, Hamilton, Russell, Piastri, Lindblad, Bortoleto and Hadjar, although red flags were thrown with six minutes and six seconds left once everyone pitted due to gravel blown onto the track at Stavelot.

The session resumed seven minutes later although nobody was in a rush to dash straight back out on track, until Hadjar led everyone back out with four minutes left in the session.

At the checkered flag, Verstappen briefly went onto pole position with 1m 44.6678 but Antonelli found 0.317s to set 1m 44.361 as the pole time.

Norris failed to improved but finished third – although he will start 13th – ahead of Russell who will inherit third on the grid ahead of; Leclerc, Hamilton, Piastri, Lindblad and Bortoleto, whilst Hadjar failed to set a time due to his penalty and again provided Verstappen with a crucial tow.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	1m 44.361
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.317
3*	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.440
4	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.508
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.532
6	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 0.534
7	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.655
8	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+ 0.782
9	Gabriel Bortoleto	Auudi	+ 1.267
10**	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull	No Time
11	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	1m 46.120
12	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 0.211
13	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 0.272
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	+ 0.551
15	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 0.657
16	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 0.659
17	Alex Albon	Williams	1m 47.120
18	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 0.681
19	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	+ 0.703
20	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	+ 0.851
21	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 2.882
22	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 3.057

*Lando Norris will start 13th on the grid after he took a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding the permitted allowance of power unit components.

** Isack Hadjar will start the race 22nd on the grid after he took a 20-place grid penalty for taking a whole new power unit change beyond the permitted allowance of power unit components.