Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix on pole position with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez next to him on the front row.
World champion Max Verstappen was fastest in qualifying on Saturday but the Red Bull driver starts in 11th place because of a 10-place grid penalty.
Verstappen dominated qualifying, with the Red Bull looking well suited to the wet conditions that saw drivers using intermediate tyres throughout. His best lap of 1m 53.159s was half a second better than of Ferrari’s Leclerc.
Sergio Perez, meanwhile, ended his horror run of Q1 exits by qualifying in third ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in P4.
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‘They gave me the lead, I gave it back’ | 02:59
It was a much-needed boost for Perez, who is at risk of losing his seat – according to rumours, as soon as the mid-season break that follows this weekend’s race.
Daniel Ricciardo, who is a strong chance of being promoted from Red Bull sister team VCARB to replace the Mexican, again outqualified his own teammate Yuki Tsunoda, but missed out on a top-ten spot.
Perez only made it into the top-ten shootout that is Q3 by 0.003s – three thousandths of a second.
But he ended up just 0.011s behind Leclerc, who crowed over the shock result.
“I definitely did not expect that this weekend but with the tricky conditions we could do something above our expectations,” said Leclerc.
“It is a good day for the team and now we need to focus on tomorrow and see what will happen when the rain is gone.”
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will start behind Hamilton in a disappointing result after their one-two finish in Hungary last time out.
Mercedes’ George Russel was seventh ahead of Carlos Sainz of Ferrari. Fernando Alonso was ninth in his Aston Martin and Esteban Ocon tenth for Alpine.
Daniel Ricciardo took 13th place in the RB, but will start 12th, five spots ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda – though Tsunoda was already set to start from the back of the grid due to an engine penalty.