Kimi Antonelli beats Max Verstappen to pole at Belgian Grand Prix | F1 | Sport

Kimi Antonelli admitted he will have a job on his hands to keep Max Verstappen at bay on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix. He outqualified the Dutchman with a commanding qualifying performance on Saturday, but knows starting on pole isn’t always the best thing at Spa-Francorchamps.

It is usually easy enough to defend the lead heading into the first corner, but then the man on pole has to negotiated the famous Eau Rouge and Raidillon section before heading down the long Kemmel Straight, which creates a huge drafting opportunity for the car behind to slip past. But that is a problem for Sunday.

All Antonelli could do on Saturday was produce the best lap he could, and that effort blew everyone else out of the water. He was more than three-tenths quicker than his nearest challenger Verstappen at the end of qualifying and couldn’t have been much more pleased with that.

“It is great to be on pole,” said Antonelli. “It was not a straightforward session, but we were able to improve lap by lap. Tomorrow is another day, but I have Max starting behind me so it is imperative to get a good start and lead into turn five. It is going to be fun tomorrow.”

Lando Norris secured third place, four tenths adrift of Antonelli, though the defending world champion will start from 13th after receiving a 10-place grid penalty for breaching his allocated engine component limit.

Norris said: “It is not nice knowing I have to go back 10 places on the grid and that is unfortunate, but we made the most of it and I have been happy with my performance all weekend. Hopefully we can have a good race tomorrow and make up some positions. That’s the plan.”

Antonelli has gone without victory since the Monaco Grand Prix on June 7, a run of three races, yet he will start Sunday’s 44-lap contest as the frontrunner to extend his 25-point championship advantage over George Russell. Russell will line up only third on another disappointing afternoon for the British driver, who has spent much of a season he started as the bookmakers’ championship favourite playing second fiddle to his team-mate.

Russell qualified fourth, half-a-second adrift of Antonelli in identical machinery, but he moves up one position due to Norris’ grid penalty. Charles Leclerc is promoted to fourth, one spot ahead of Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton. His involvement had been in serious jeopardy after he crashed out of final practice and suffered substantial damage to the rear of his Ferrari.

Hamilton’s mechanics had two hours to repair a car described as “destroyed” by the seven-time world champion. And they managed it to give him an opportunity at challenging Antonelli. Yet he was unable to threaten the Italian teenager, who cruised to his sixth pole position of the season. Hamilton finished 0.534s adrift of the man he sits 32 points behind in the championship table.

The opening segment of qualifying had an all-too-familiar look about it, with Williams’ Alex Albon, Haas’ Esteban Ocon, Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez and the struggling Aston Martin pairing of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll all knocked out. Aston Martin are set to introduce a desperately needed upgrade at next weekend’s race in Hungary in a bid to rescue a thoroughly demoralising season.

Double world champion Alonso, who has gone without a victory for 13 years and is just 11 days away from his 45th birthday, finished two seconds adrift of Perez in 20th place and five seconds behind Antonelli’s Q1 pace.