F1 Sprint Qualifying Results: Belgian Grand Prix 2023 times

A delayed sprint shootout brought the drama once again at Spa on Saturday, as rain once again forced the start of a session to be pushed back.

It was 35 minutes past the scheduled start time when cars finally took to the track – on intermediate tyres, rather than full wets – for the 12-minute SQ1.

Max Verstappen claimed pole for Saturday afternoon's sprint by just thousandths of a second from Oscar Piastri, with Carlos Sainz barely more than a hundredth of a second behind.

Both Aston Martins fell in SQ2 thanks to a single strategy misstep, the team sending Lance Stroll out on slick tyres when the rest of the field were on intermediates. The Canadian put it in the wall on his one hot lap, bringing out a red flag with 30 seconds remaining of the session and robbing Fernando Alonso of a chance to set a time.

F1 Sprint Qualifying Results: Belgian Grand Prix 2023

1. Max Verstappen [Red Bull] – 1:49.056sec

2. Oscar Piastri [McLaren] – +0.011s

3. Carlos Sainz [Ferrari] – +0.025s

4. Charles Leclerc [Ferrari] – +0.195s

5. Lando Norris [McLaren] – +0.333s

6. Pierre Gasly [Alpine] – +0.644s

7. Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] – +0.844s

8. Sergio Perez [Red Bull] – +0.905s

9. Esteban Ocon [Alpine] – +1.438s

10. George Russell [Mercedes] – +6.686s

ELIMINATED IN Q2

11. Daniel Ricciardo [AlphaTauri]

12. Alex Albon [Williams]

13. Logan Sargeant [Williams]

14. Fernando Alonso [Aston Martin]

15. Lance Stroll [Aston Martin]

ELIMINATED IN Q1

16. Yuki Tsunoda [AlphaTauri]

17. Valtteri Bottas [Alfa Romeo]

18. Kevin Magnussen [Haas]

19. Zhou Guanyu [Alfa Romeo]

20. Nico Hulkenberg [Haas]

How does F1 Sprint Qualifying work?

The shortened qualifying session is split into three finite windows which provides a dramatic prelude to Saturday afternoon's sprint race.

The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of SQ1, with a further five eliminated after SQ2.

Then SQ3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.

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