The Belgian Grand Prix is already taking place right now at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit. It is a race that has been in doubt about whether it was going to be carried out or not, since we can remember that the 2021 edition had to be cancelled in a controversial way after having had terrible weather conditions, and after having consulted the weather radar, the rain will be present in large quantities also this weekend.
Despite this, the qualifying session for the main race on Sunday has taken place, as we have to remember that the Grand Prix will be run in a sprint format. This means that the only free practice session was held today, Friday, while the order of the starting grid for Sunday’s race was defined in the afternoon. Saturday will be the “sprint shootout”, which will define the starting order for the sprint race, which will be raced that same day in the afternoon. Finally, the main race will be the only session that will be held on Sunday.
The constantly changing conditions were the main factor in today’s qualifying. After the rains that had already occurred throughout the day, teams and drivers had to adapt their strategies and driving styles respectively by having to drive for a while on wet asphalt but then on dry. Once again, the driver who took pole position was the two-time world champion, Max Verstappen.
However, Red Bull have decided to change his gearbox, meaning the Dutchman has a 5-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race. On the other hand, his teammate, Sergio Perez, achieved third position in the starting order, but after the current championship leader’s penalty, the Mexican driver will start from second position and try to take the lead of the race, since Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari will start from the first position.
“It was very tight. Of course, the condition were very tricky. The track was really drying quickly, and my final lap, I just didn’t have that confidence in Q2 to push more, and I was very lucky to be in P10.” the Dutchman stated.
We could hear a bit of a ‘fight’ between Verstappen and his racing engineer, after the reigning champion was not happy with how Q2 was handled by his team. Lambiase, who works as his engineer, told him that what the team did was right. It was a calm and simple answer but it made the Dutchman calm down.
“But then of course in Q3, you’ve got two tyre sets, you know that you can push a little more, you can risk a little bit more, and that’s what we did on that final lap. To be on pole again, I know I have to drop back again on Sunday with the penalty I have, but it was the best I could do today.”
Photo Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
During the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix, Verstappen also received numerous power unit penalties, causing him to start Sunday’s race in P14. This did not stop Max from taking victory after a clean and error-free race. The Dutchman believes that he will be able to complete the ultimate mission even with the penalty that will be imposed on him on the starting grid.
“Last year I had more penalties, and we could still win the race. So that’s still the target for Sunday.”
“But let’s first see also tomorrow what the weather will do and what kind of racing we will have,” the two-time world champion stated.
For his part, Perez also acknowledged that the weather conditions were a very important factor to consider during the first day of on-track action at the Belgian Grand Prix.
“Very tricky qualifying out there, it was very tricky. Started on the inters, conditions were very tricky initially. We thought it was going to get a lot drier a lot quicker.” The Mexican admitted.
“But it took a long time and even there at the end in Q3, it was quite tricky in a few places, like Turns 8, 9, very tricky. But it’s a good result.
“It’s a bit of a shame I didn’t get Charles there, but I think in these conditions, it was good that we had a good one.”
