Mercedes’ Antonelli outpaces Verstappen to grab F1 Belgian GP pole

Kimi Antonelli has suffered a run of no little bad luck of late, but the Italian teenager demonstrated it had left him entirely unfazed as he produced a dominant lap to secure pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The 19-year-old’s composure and control at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday was something to behold as he flew round the circuit in the Ardennes mountains with ease, comfortably beating the Red Bull of Max Verstappen into second place. Notable was the manner in which he did so given Verstappen had benefited from having a tow from his teammate, Isack Hadjar, who willingly sacrificed his laps given he had a 30-place grid penalty to come.

Even with that tow, which Verstappen admitted had been crucial, he was outstripped by Antonelli by 0.317sec. An intimidating margin and the largest advantage any driver has held for pole this season.

Antonelli suffered with a battery failure in Spain and a wheel-shield failure in the last round at Silverstone, reducing what had been a 64-point lead over his teammate, George Russell, after Monaco to 25 points going into this weekend. Yet his assurance and form was on a high in Belgium, the Italian ready only to go onwards and upwards. “I’ve been feeling good with the car all year and it’s good to be more and more confident whenever I jump in it,” he said.

Kimi Antonelli stormed to pole with the largest advantage of the season. Photograph: Clive Mason/Getty Images

That confidence stood in stark contrast to Russell, who could manage only fourth, a full half a second back on his teammate. He was once more lacking pace on the straights, something he has struggled with since the Austrian GP and has left him confused. “It’s frustrating, we thought we found the problem,” he said.

“We go through the process, we think it this, so we change it. I thought it was driver style, I changed it. It’s not the driving style. It feels like your battling with one hand behind your back, it’s a challenge.”

It was clear disappointment to the Briton that leaves him with an awful lot of work to do on Sunday if Antonelli is not to extend his title lead. It seems clear the Italian will be hard to beat.

Verstappen acknowledged the part Hadjar had played, but noted it only illustrated quite what an advantage Antonelli enjoyed. “Isack helped me a lot with the tow in the final sector,” he said. “Otherwise it could have easily been P6 because the gaps behind were so close.

“The gap even in qualifying with a massive tow is still over three-tenths. So I don’t really expect to race them tomorrow.”

Lando Norris took third place for McLaren, but the defending world champion has a 10-place grid penalty after he used his fourth battery unit of the season, one more than allowed. He will start from 13th on the grid and although he had put in a blistering lap to go fastest in the first hot runs in Q3, was blunt in admitting that he was not surprised at all that the Mercedes ultimately went so much quicker.

The pole was by no means a given . Hadjar gave Verstappen a tow in the final sector on their first quick laps in Q3 only for Antonelli to go faster and then Norris to grab the top spot, just four-hundredths up on the Mercedes.

The margins were small, but Antonelli found another level. Verstappen again picked up a tow from his teammate and took the slipstream from Hadjar through Blanchimont, enough to go quickest, only to be immediately eclipsed by Antonelli. He improved in every sector and was on rails at one of the season’s most testing circuits to claim pole with a time of 1min 44.361sec.

For Mercedes then, in the hands of Antonelli at least, it once more demonstrated they are all but untouchable over the single lap, despite the upgrades every team has now employed. Mercedes remain unbeaten this season in qualifying, while Antonelli with his sixth pole from 10 meetings will have every chance to convert it to his sixth win, if the Italian is spared any further ill-fortune on Sunday.

Lewis Hamilton had crashed out in final practice, too quick into Les Fagnes where he hit the barriers taking significant damage, but his Ferrari team were able to make repairs in time for qualifying and he finished in sixth, behind his teammate, Charles Leclerc, in fifth.