Kimi Antonelli Dominates Spa Qualifying

Andrea Kimi Antonelli secured his second consecutive pole position, and sixth of the Formula 1 season, after dominating qualifying for tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix.

The Italian claimed the top spot on the grid at Spa with a lap time of 1:44.361, set right at the end of Q3. This effort put him a significant 0.317 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen in the battle for pole, meaning the four-time champion will start from second on the grid.

World Champion Lando Norris finished third in qualifying, having led after the initial runs in Q3. However, the Briton made a mistake on his second flying lap, running wide at Turn 13, and subsequently aborted the lap, heading straight back to the pits.

Even more frustrating for the McLaren driver is that he will start a lowly 13th due to a ten-place grid penalty for using an additional power unit component this weekend. As a result, George Russell will move up to start third, with Charles Leclerc, winner of the last race in Great Britain, lining up alongside him on the second row.

Lewis Hamilton and last year's Belgian Grand Prix winner will form the third row, ahead of Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto, who will share the fourth row. Lindblad made the most of the updated Racing Bulls car he has at Spa, delivering his strongest Formula 1 qualifying performance to date.

Red Bull's Isack Hadjar finished last in Q3, and he too faces a penalty, meaning he will start from the back of the grid tomorrow. The Frenchman's sole task in the closing minutes of the pole position battle was to provide a slipstream for his teammate Verstappen in the third sector, a tactic that certainly aided Verstappen's effort.

Liam Lawson, driving the un-updated Racing Bulls car, was the first driver to miss out on the top 10 in qualifying, finishing just 0.038 seconds behind Bortoleto in the fight for the final Q3 spot. Alongside Lawson, Pierre Gasly, Franco Colapinto, Nico Hülkenberg, Carlos Sainz, and Oliver Bearman also saw their qualifying sessions end at the close of Q2.

At the end of Q2, Hülkenberg stopped on track due to a hydraulic leak in his Audi. The German parked in a convenient location, allowing marshals to quickly move his car behind the barriers, thus minimizing the delay to the start of Q3.

At the conclusion of Q1, a mere 0.007 seconds separated Alex Albon and Bearman in the battle for the final Q2 spot, which ultimately went to the Haas driver, while Albon was eliminated. Along with the Thai Williams driver, Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso, and Lance Stroll were also knocked out of the pole position battle after the first 18 minutes.

Ocon's performance, whose future at Haas has been a subject of discussion for several months, was particularly disappointing. The Frenchman was a significant 0.688 seconds slower than his teammate Bearman and only managed to outpace Bottas by 0.022 seconds. Meanwhile, the Aston Martin duo, Alonso and Stroll, were both over two seconds slower than the next slowest driver (Perez) in the final qualifying session before the major upgrade package for the AMR26, set to debut in Hungary next week.

The Belgian Grand Prix, the tenth round of the 2026 Formula 1 season, is scheduled for tomorrow (July 19th) at 4:00 PM Bulgarian time and can be followed live on Sportal.bg.