Belgian Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Event: Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix – Saturday August 29
Location: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Layout: 7.004-kilometer (4.352-mile), 19-turn circuit
Weather: Partly Cloudy
Air Temps: 16 degrees Celsius (60.8 degrees Fahrenheit)
Track Temps: 24 degrees Celsius (75.2 degrees Fahrenheit)
Pole Winner: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:41.252) 
Result:    Romain Grosjean qualified 17th / Kevin Magnussen qualified 20th 

Free Practice No. 3 Rundown

Magnussen: 14th overall (1:44.841), 10 laps completed
Grosjean: 15th overall (1:44.844) 16 laps completed
Fastest: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:43.255)

Q1 Rundown: 

18-minute session with all 20 drivers – Top 15 advance to Q2

Grosjean: 17th overall (1:43.838)
Magnussen: 20th overall (1:44.314)
Fastest: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:42.323) 

Q2 Rundown: 

15-minute session featuring the Top 15 from Q1 – Top 10 advance to Q3

Fastest: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:42.014) 

Q3 Rundown: 

12-minute session featuring the Top 10 from Q2

Pole Winner: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:41.252)
Second: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:41.763)

Recap

Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen qualified 17th and 20th, respectively, for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, the seventh round of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

Both drivers had three new sets of the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires at their disposal for their planned Q1 qualifying runs. Grosjean clocked a 1:45.073 on his first timed attack but the Frenchman subsequently had to scrap his next run losing time at the FIA weighbridge on his return to the pits. His final outing in the dying minutes of the session netted a 1:43.838 on new softs – placing him 17th overall. Magnussen logged a 1:45.377 on his first stint before bettering that with a 1:44.314 on his second set of tires. An off-track excursion at turn 14 on his third and final timed run on fresh rubber eradicated any hopes of improvement leaving the Dane 20th at the checkered flag.

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes claimed P1 on the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix, the fifth pole of the season for the reigning World Champion and his 93rd career Formula One pole. His Q3 fast lap of 1:41.252, a new track record, beat teammate and second-place qualifier Valtteri Bottas by .511 of a second.

Romain Grosjean, Driver No. 8, Haas F1 Team

“We knew we’d be part of the six to eight last cars in qualifying. It’s no secret though that here, Monza, Mugello – they’re all likely to be difficult weekends. The best we can do is to get the maximum from the car, and I think I did. My fast lap was a fun lap, Spa is absolutely mega – I wish we could race more often here. Even if you’re 17th if feels fast. If conditions are changeable tomorrow, then we can try different things and hopefully play to our strengths.”

Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20, Haas F1 Team

“It was very tight after the second run, in terms of time trying to do three runs here in Q1. After my second run though, the gap wasn’t too big to the midfield guys in P13 and P14. That would have been a very good position for us. I knew I really had to come up with an extremely good lap to do it. I gave it everything I had but I just overdid it. I made a mistake at turn 14 and went off. We didn’t have any tows in the first two runs and that costs you about three tenths or so. It just didn’t really come together for us. We obviously don’t really know much about our race pace, hopefully – as it often is, we’re quicker in the race than compared to qualifying. I’m hoping that’s the same tomorrow. There’s a pretty good chance of rain on Sunday which could make things exciting.”

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team

“It was a difficult qualifying, but then the whole weekend up until now has been difficult. We didn’t have a lot of time to make up for the time we lost on Friday. We tried our best, we made progress, but it didn’t work out. We had planned to have both cars do three runs in Q1 – to make sure they could get as much driving time in before going for their fast lap. Romain (Grosjean) was called into the weighbridge, so we lost one of his attempts, we had to cancel it as there wasn’t the time. Kevin (Magnussen), on his fast qualifying run, he just tried to get the maximum out and he just tried too much. They both did a good job, it’s just difficult if you don’t run on Friday to get the confidence to attack like this as it’s a fast track. Kevin just tried hard because we haven’t got a lot to lose at the moment. We need to try hard and not be worried about taking calculated risks, we obviously don’t want to do anything stupid. If it rains tomorrow, we’re not going to do anything stupid, but we’ll take calculated risks.”