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Italian Formula one driver Kimi Antonelli of team Mercedes, drives during a free practice ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix of Belgium at the Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps. Benoit Doppagne/Belga/dpa
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli claimed a stunning pole position for the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix on Saturday as Max Verstappen had to be content with second despite a little help from his team-mate.
Mercedes driver Antonelli claimed his sixth pole of the season when he clocked 1 minute 44.361 seconds on the longest course of the season with 7.004 kilometres.
Verstappen trailed by .317 of a second in second although his Red Bull partner Isack Hadjar gave him a tow in the deciding lap.
World champion Lando Norris of McLaren was third but will lose 10 places on Sunday's grid owing to a penalty.
"It's great to be on pole," Antonelli said. "It was not a very straightforward session, the track changed a lot. But we were able to improve lap by lap and to bring home pole, which was nice.
"But tomorrow is another day and obviously I have Max starting next to me so it's going to be important to get a good start and then be ahead into Turn Five," he warned.
Triple Spa race winner Verstappen said the tow from Hadjar, who also has to serve a grid penalty, in the final sector "was definitely helping me, otherwise I would not be standing here. Otherwise I think I would be like P6, or something."
The four-time champion is yet to win this season and remained cautious for Sunday, saying: "I’ll just do my best and see if we can hang in there or not.”
Antonelli's championship lead has been reduced to 25 points over team-mate george Russell after he failed to win in the last three races and outside the points on two of them. Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton is another seven points back in third.
Norris topped the time sheets when Q3 was red-flagged half-way through the 12 minutes to clear the track from gravel after McLaren's Oscar Piastri had rode out.
But in the end Mercedes maintained their 100% record qualifying season record from Antonelli, who had also topped second and third practice in Spa.
Their other driver, George Russell, was fourth ahead of the Ferrari duo of British GP winner Charles Leclerc and Hamilton.
Ferrari did a great job repairing Hamilton's car in short time after the seven-time champion had heavily damaged the car in a crash late in final practice.
Norris and Hadjar are among four drivers who will serve grid penalties for bringing in new engine components beyond the allowed limit.
Norris and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin will lose 10 spots each from their qualifying result while Hadjar and Fernando Alonso in the other Aston Martin have to start from the back of the grid.
"It's nice to be standing here just not nice knowing I have to go 10 places back tomorrow," Norris admitted.
"Unfortunate that this isn't genuinely where we are starting tomorrow because it would be nice to have a little bit of a fight with these guys but we made the most of it."
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Dutch Formula One driver Max Verstappen of team Red Bull Racing, drives during a free practice ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix of Belgium at the Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps. Benoit Doppagne/Belga/dpa
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