Belgian Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Wet weather impacted Saturday’s track activities at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. A rain-affected final practice was effectively a washout – with Hulkenberg able to bank just a handful of laps in his VF-24 on Pirelli Cinturato Green intermediate tires, and Magnussen only emerging to take the practice start.

More rain was expected as qualifying commenced later in the afternoon – all cars exiting the pits promptly onto the damp track in Q1 – all shod on the intermediate rubber. Hulkenberg and Magnussen ran two sets of tires, the rain ultimately holding off in the opening session. Hulkenberg’s fastest lap, a 1:56.308, placed the German P16, while Magnussen’s best, a 1:56.500, held the Dane in P17 – both drivers out of qualifying at the Q1 checkered.

Max Verstappen clocked a 1:53.159 in Q3 to claim P1 but a 10-place grid penalty for the Dutchman promoted Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to pole position with Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez taking second on the grid.



Nico Hulkenberg:

“I think our run profile was actually good, close to optimum, I don’t feel like we left anything out there. We just didn’t have the pace unfortunately, I was struggling on the intermediate, and we didn’t have the grip needed to do a better lap time. It’s been a bit of a theme this season that on the intermediates the car doesn’t feel that happy and not in the best place. We need to understand and analyze that for the future. I don’t know if others went for higher downforce for qualifying because of the rain, but if that is the case it could play into our hands, but we’ll only find out tomorrow.”

Kevin Magnussen:

“I don’t think we were too far from the optimum we could do. I went out for two timed laps in the second run and the track was getting so much better that it would’ve been better to do one timed lap with new tires with the track being the best. We didn’t look as competitive in these conditions compared to the dry conditions yesterday. Our plan was for a wet session but there was almost a dry line at the end, so that didn’t work for our plan, but the performance wasn’t there.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“Obviously that wasn’t the qualifying session we were looking for. Fundamentally, the car doesn’t seem to be working well on the intermediates, so we really need to investigate the reason why. On top of that, Kevin’s car looks like it had a physical issue with the rear suspension which we can see on the data so we’re now looking into that, but I’m sure we can put that one right tonight. Tomorrow, we can’t solve the issue with the intermediate compound overnight, but looking ahead it’s a dry race with very different temperatures, so hopefully we should be a bit more competitive.”

Today's Data

Event: Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix – Saturday July 27
Location: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Layout: 7.004-kilometer (4.352-mile), 19-turn circuit
Weather: Cloudy / Damp
Air Temps: 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 degrees Fahrenheit)
Track Temps: 22 degrees Celsius (71.6 degrees Fahrenheit)
Team Result: Hulkenberg qualified 16th, Magnussen qualified 17th

Free Practice 3 (FP3) Rundown:

Hulkenberg: 12th overall (2:08.040), 5 laps 
Magnussen: No Time Set 
Fastest: Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing (2:01.565)

Q1 Qualifying: 18-mins with all Drivers – Top 15 Advance to Q2

Hulkenberg: 16th overall (1:56.308) 
Magnussen: 17th overall (1:56.500) 
Fastest: Oscar Piastri of McLaren (1:54.835)

Q2 Qualifying: 15-mins – Top 10 Advance to Q3

Fastest: Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing (1:53.837)

Q3 Qualifying: 12-mins – Top 10 Drivers

Fastest: Max Verstappen* of Red Bull Racing (1:53.159) *10-place grid penalty