Dominant Kimi Antonelli storms to pole position at Belgian Grand Prix

By Philip Duncan, Press Association F1 Correspondent, Spa-Francorchamps

Kimi Antonelli raced to an emphatic pole position for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix to leave his world championship rivals trailing in his wake.

The 19-year-old Mercedes driver headed into qualifying as the man to beat after topping two of the three practice sessions in Spa-Francorchamps and he delivered on his status with a brilliant lap.

Antonelli saved his very best to last to see off Red Bull driver Max Verstappen by 0.317 seconds.

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Lando Norris qualified third, four tenths down on Antonelli, but the world champion will line up from 13th as he serves a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his allocated number of engine parts.

“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.”

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 is without a win since the Monaco Grand Prix on June 7, a streak of three races, but he will begin Sunday’s 44-lap race as the favourite to build on his 25-point championship lead over George Russell.

Russell will start only third on another sobering afternoon for the British driver, who has spent much of a season he began as the bookmakers’ title tip in his team-mate’s shadow.

Russell qualified fourth, half-a-second behind Antonelli in the same machinery, but he is upgraded one place because of Norris’ grid sanction.

Charles Leclerc is bumped up to fourth, a place clear of Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

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Norris finished the opening Q3 laps with an advantage of 0.039secs over Antonelli.

The climax to qualifying was then put on pause from seven minutes after Oscar Piastri kicked up gravel a the 14th corner.

But when the running re-started Antonelli could not be caught.

Hamilton’s participation had been in major doubt after he crashed out of final practice and sustained significant damage to the rear of his Ferrari.

Hamilton’s mechanics had two hours to fix a machine described as “destroyed” by the seven-time world champion. And they succeeded to allow him a shot at disturbing Antonelli.

However, he was unable to lay a glove on the Italian teenager, who romped to his sixth pole of the season.

Hamilton finished 0.534s behind the man he trails by 32 points in the championship standings.

The opening phase of qualifying had an all-too-predictable feel about it, with Williams’ Alex Albon, Haas’ Esteban Ocon, Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez and the hapless Aston Martin duo of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll all eliminated.

Aston Martin are due to deliver a much-needed upgrade at the next weekend’s race in Hungary to salvage an utterly demoralising season.

Double world champion Alonso, who is without a win in 13 years, and 11 days shy of his 45th birthday, finished two seconds slower than Perez in 20th and five seconds off Antonelli’s Q1 pace.