Charles Leclerc on pole in Belgium, third time's a charm?

Belgian GP

Leclerc on pole in Belgium, third time's a charm?

Matthew Scott

Saturday 31 August 2019 16:13 Updated: 16:21

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Charles Leclerc secured his third pole position of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix, making good on Ferrari's strong promise at Spa-Francorchamps.

Leclerc got the better of Sebastian Vettel by a huge seven tenths of a second in an all-red battle for P1, as Mercedes were unable to keep pace with the mighty SF90.

It ended a run of Mercedes-powered pole positions at this famous circuit that ran back to 2012, when Jenson Button took Saturday honours for McLaren.

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Lewis Hamilton qualified ahead of Valtteri Bottas on the second row, with Max Verstappen tucked in behind them in fifth.

Vettel is unlikely to be too perturbed by losing out to his team-mate on the Saturday, having won this race from second 12 months ago - his last victory in F1.

Leclerc has previously taken pole in Bahrain and Austria this year, leading both races for the majority before losing out late on.

Given Ferrari's clear strength in Spa this weekend, only errors or poor reliability looks like preventing them from taking a first win of 2019, although who will secure it remains up for debate.

Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg were sixth and seventh respectively in a strong showing for Renault, although both will serve five-place grid penalties, having added a new engine to their allocation this weekend.

Kimi Raikkonen, Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top 10 in qualifying.

Q2

Albon and Lance Stroll dropped out, facing big grid penalties regardless. Antonio Giovnazzi took no part after his earlier engine blowout, with Romain Grosjean and Lando Norris missing out by just a tenth each, although both will start in the top 10 thanks to the Renault pair's penalties.

Q1

Engine failures for Robert Kubica and Giovinazzi somewhat bookended the session. Giovinazzi's blowout forced a red flag just a minute from time running out, leaving Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz, Daniil Kvyat and George Russell stranded in the drop zone alongside Kubica, who did not set a time.