F1 2025 | Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying Recap: Lando Norris pips Piastri to steal pole in Belgium

It is advantage Lando Norris going into the Belgian Grand Prix 2025 as the McLaren driver saw off his teammate, Oscar Piastri and late flying effort from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc  to take pole position at Spa-Francorchamps. While Leclerc had a strong session for Ferrari, his teammate had yet another session to forget with the seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, suffering a Q1 exit due to a rare driver error from the veteran. 

If you missed the Belgian Grand Prix 2025, here’s a quick recap of the session.

Q1 – Hamilton, Aston Martin stunned

A disappointing Sprint qualifying session seemed to have carried over to regular qualifying as Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton looked like the big name who was struggling after the grid got their times in. Both Aston Martin’s struggled as well as did the young Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli with the Mercedes engine not looking strong at Spa-Francorchamps. Hamilton though, recovered at the very end as the flag dropped and sailed into Q2 at the expense of Gabriel Bortoleto. 

Hamilton’s joy though, was short-lived as he was told that we went wide and had his final lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, which meant he also exited in Q1. 

Drivers eliminated in Q1:

Lewis Hamilton
Franco Colapinto
Kimi Antonelli
Fernando Alonso
Lance Stroll

Q2 – Haas lose pace while Bortoleto impresses to make top 10

Oscar Piastri’s 1:40.626 saw him sit at the top of the table as the Q2 session got going with Norris 0.089s behind him while Verstappen was three tenths behind Piastri. Charles Leclerc continued to show that the Ferrari had the pace to keep up with the McLarens and Verstappen as he was a tenth behind Verstappen. 

As the clock ticked off with the session coming to an end, both the Haas cars along with Pierre Gasly, Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz of Williams failed to make it to the top 10. The double exit for Haas was particularly frustrating for the American team who had both their cars in the top 6 in Q1 and showed strong pace. 

Drivers eliminated in Q2:

Esteban Ocon
Ollie Bearman
Pierre Gasly
Nico Hülkenberg
Carlos Sainz 

Q3 – Norris holds on as Piastri, Verstappen unable to take pole

The top 10 shootout got underway with Lando Norris going quickest early on with a 1:40.562s while Piastri was 0.189s behind with Verstappen half a second behind Norris. Norris was unable to improve his time, while Verstappen failed as well and even though Piastri went quicker, it wasn’t enough as he fell short by 0.085s while Leclerc put in a strong final lap to pip Verstappen for third place.

Alex Albon, like Leclerc, also put in a strong final lap to put his Williams at P5, edging out Mercedes’ George Russell. 

Starting Grid for the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix (before penalties applied):

1. Lando Norris
2. Oscar Piastri
3. Charles Leclerc
4. Max Verstappen
5. Alex Albon
6. George Russell
7. Yuki Tsunoda
8. Isack Hadjar
9. Liam Lawson
10. Gabriel Bortoleto
11. Esteban Ocon
12. Ollie Bearman
13. Pierre Gasly
14. Nico Hülkenberg
15. Carlos Sainz 
16. Lewis Hamilton
17. Franco Colapinto
18. Kimi Antonelli
19. Fernando Alonso
20. Lance Stroll