Verstappen dislodges Russell at the death as the Dutchman claims pole position for the 2021 F1 Belgian Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen left it late to claim pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix with George Russell qualifying a fantastic second for Williams.

The Red Bull driver out-qualified the Brit by three-tenths and has a chance to claim back the championship lead with Lewis Hamilton starting third.

Q1

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The two Williams drivers, Nicholas Latifi and George Russell, led the field out of the pit lane as the light went green.

Max Verstappen was the final driver out onto the track with the Williams duo opting for the intermediate tyres and the rest of the grid going out on wet tyres.

Moments later, Latifi brought out the yellow flag in sector two as the Canadian span around and ruined his lap.

However, Russell was able to still set a competitive lap time with a 2:11.727. The Brit slowly dropped down the order as Pierre Gasly went a second quicker to move up to first.

Verstappen dipped into the 2:07’s as he went quickest but Russell put his car back on top with a 2:02.068, five seconds quicker than the Red Bull driver.

After everyone completed their first timed laps, Russell was top of the timing charts with Latifi in second and Esteban Ocon in third.

The times started to get quicker as the drivers went onto the intermediate tyres. Norris set the fastest lap of Q1 with a 1:58.301 ahead of Verstappen in second and Lewis Hamilton in third.

The drivers eliminated from the first qualifying session were: Antonio Giovinazzi, Yuki Tsunoda, Mick Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Nikita Mazepin.

Q2

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Latifi was out on track first as Q2 got underway. The Canadian set a 1:59.363 with Norris going over two seconds faster to move to the top of the timing charts.

Hamilton had to back out of his first competitive attempt as the seven-time world champion set a 1:58.359 to move into seventh place.

With four minutes to go, the Red Bull of Verstappen went quickest, five-tenths quicker than the previous fastest lap time from Norris.

Both Mercedes drivers had to peel into the pits and fit on new intermediate tyres as Hamilton and Bottas needed to improve to qualify for Q3. In the dying embers, the Silver Arrows were able to do so as the duo got out of Q2 finishing second and third.

It was Norris that completed the second qualifying session on top after setting a 1:56.025. Charles Leclerc, Nicholas Latifi, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were the drivers knocked out of qualifying.

Q3

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The rain started to fall heavily after the end of Q2 with the drivers opting for the wet tyres and Norris coming out of the pit lane first.

As the McLaren driver started his first flying lap, he was sent spinning at Eau Rouge with the red flag brought out and ending his pole position chances.

Ocon was the first driver out of the pit lane first as the Alpine man came out on the wet tyres but came into the pits shortly after to fit the inters.

The first competitive lap time was set by Hamilton who set a 2:01.552. Bottas went close to two seconds slower than his teammate with Verstappen nine-tenths slower but was able to move into second.

Everyone left it late as Russell jumped into provisional pole with a 2:00.086. Hamilton was unable to dislodge his compatriot but Verstappen did as he went three-tenths quicker to snatch pole position away from the Williams driver.

Hamilton qualified third ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in fourth, Sebastian Vettel in fifth, Pierre Gasly in sixth, Sergio Perez in seventh, Bottas, who will serve a five-place grid penalty, finished Q3 in eighth with Ocon in ninth and Norris in 10th.

What’s Next?

Max Verstappen will be hoping to claim the championship lead once more with the Dutchman starting the race from pole position. George Russell accompanies him on the front row as the Williams driver aims to score more points after a successful Hungarian Grand Prix.

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