Kimi's Stunning Spa Pole Lap - 2026 Belgian GP Qualifying Review
Formula 1 Championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli set a sensational lap to secure pole position at the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix. Kimi at Spa is an age-old combination for success, but can the Italian claim his first win since Monaco this Sunday?
Video Transcript
Oh man, don't you just love a good weekend spa break?
We have a fantastic Belgian Grand Prix around the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps set up after a brilliant qualifying session today on Saturday afternoon.
Here are the main highlights and talking points from the Belgian Grand Prix weekend so far, including of course who is going to be the favorite to lead into turn one.
So we'll start with the best of the rest, and that's kind of doing them a disservice really.
We had the usual eight drivers in Q1, and of course that left two more spots, and they were filled by Arvid Lindblad, who qualified in P8, and Gabriel Bortoleto, who qualified in P9.
Bortoleto again getting his Audi into the top 10, and Lindblad continuing the incredible form from the Racing Bulls.
Indeed, Liam Lawson was down in P11, and Lindblad potentially benefited from a new upgrades package that the RB cars could only have on one of their vehicles.
Lindblad qualified better around Silverstone, so he got the upgrade package, and that in the end might have made the difference between him making the top 10 in his case, and of course Lawson not making the top 10.
Still though, very impressive effort from the rookie, the only rookie in the field.
And Bortoleto, I mean, as long as he finishes the race, I think he's going to be in the top 10 and getting points.
But that Audi, as we saw from his teammate's car, Nico Hulkenberg, is very unreliable.
Hulkenberg having some kind of hydraulics problem after the flag effectively, after the end of Q2, and that delayed the start of Q3 as a result.
Hulk had already qualified in P14 by that point, but of course it was very worrying signs for himself and also Bortoleto for the rest of this weekend.
So fingers crossed for the Audi men.
They deserve a break, especially Hulk, who has not managed to score any points yet this season.
But let's go into the top eight, guys.
Let's go through the top four teams, the usual suspects here.
And Ferrari kind of where, to be honest with you, we really expect them to be.
They look pretty impressive in practice at times.
It looks as though they might be able to get both of their cars into the top five, maybe into the top three, into the podium positions.
But this is a power circuit.
Their Ferrari engine is the weakest on the grid in terms of overall power.
It's really good when it comes to reliability.
It's bulletproof reliability-wise.
The Mercedes can't say that.
The Red Bull Ford cannot say that.
The, of course, the Honda cannot say that.
And as we already established, the Audi cannot say that either.
But in terms of outright performance, it's probably the weakest on the grid.
So for Charles Leclerc to get in P5 and Lewis Hamilton to be in P6, I don't think is that bad of an effort, to be honest with you.
I'm sure they would have wanted more, but in the circumstances, not that terrible.
They were only about a 10th of a second, under a 10th of a second off getting third.
But they will not start in those positions.
They will start a little higher.
I'll explain why as we go through the video, guys.
But there were some grid penalties out there that does shake up the order a little bit.
I'll just go into the order in qualifying and then at the end say how it affects everybody in terms of their starting position.
Are you following me?
I hope so.
Next, let's talk about my boys McLaren.
I think an all right day for them overall in terms of performance.
I mean, Lando Norris, he is half Belgium.
This is a, very much a, a second home race for him, you could say.
He was up in P3.
He could have potentially got pole, or at least maybe P2, if he didn't run wide on his second run.
His second run unfortunately not being completed in Q3.
But it wouldn't have meant that he started in P2 because he has a 10-place grid penalty.
So that means unfortunately for him, I believe he will actually start down in P12 because Isack Hadjar, who you would have seen flash up on your screen, he qualified in 10th place, but he starts at the very back, probably from the pit lane in all honesty, because of a complete power unit change.
So even though Lando Norris has a 10-place penalty, I believe he moves back nine places because of Isack Hadjar being another one of those drivers to move back.
It's rather complicated.
Do correct me if I'm wrong on that one, guys.
But yeah, really good effort from Lando Norris.
Unfortunately, in the other McLaren, Oscar Piastri, I mean, we already talk- touched on the fact that unfortunately the, the McLaren very much is rather unreliable at the moment.
I mean, it's mainly down to the Mercedes power unit from what I can tell, but it's really unreliable for them, hence why Norris has taken an engine penalty at not even the halfway point of the season.
You really don't wanna be doing that, unless you have to, and he has to.
So Piastri down in P7, unfortunately for him.
Again, maybe just a lack of pace, lack of confidence, I'm not sure, but it's really tight in that top group.
From third all the way down to, what, eighth is three-tenths of a second.
That's not that big of a gap.
In fact, that w- in the end was the gap between first and second as well.
Who got first and second?
Let's go through it.
P2 today was Max Verstappen.
Excellent effort from the Red Bull man to get into second place.
He's really good around this circuit.
He won the sprint here last year.
He's had three victories here.
He's had so many good results here over the years.
What was it?
That win in 2022 where he started, like, 16th and he ended up winning the Grand Prix.
Absolutely unbelievable pace.
He did all he can.
He even had Hadjar in Q3 giving him a bit of a help when it came to a tow, which some people might say, "Oh, that's unfair.
That's not exactly fair, is it?"
Well, end of the day, Hadjar was gonna start at the back anyway, so all Red Bull had to do was get him through to Q3 and then use him as a, a, basically a gap in the air, basically a blocker for the air pretty much to give Max Verstappen a bit of a boost on the final sector of the lap.
Nothing wrong with that.
It's in the rules.
No issues there.
Any team would have done the exact same thing in the same position, and if it didn't, they're not fully optimizing their strategy in my opinion.
So Verstappen did a great job.
Hadjar was looking quick as well.
I mean, I think he probably would have got in the top five, to be honest.
I think he would have beat the Ferraris if he set a competitive lap in Q3, but he didn't, so we'll never know, but it also doesn't matter because he starts at the back no matter what.
And who was on top?
Well, it's that man again, Kimi Antonelli.
I mean, Kimi Rikknen was really good around here.
He had so many wins around here in some absolutely terrible cars over the years.
I still remember his win in the Ferrari in 2009.
That thing had no business being on the top step of the podium.
Just ask the likes of Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fisichella also drove that car that year.
Kimi Antonelli though, he did really well around here, of course, getting pole position by over three-tenths of a second.
And the more important thing for me is he beat his teammate George Russell by half a second.
Russell qualified in P4, but he starts in P3 because of Lando Norris's penalty.
And to be honest, P3 is actually quite a good place to start.
You're behind the leading pair, so you'll get all the benefits of the slipstream going out of La Source, into Eau Rouge, up and over Raidillon, and into Les Combes.
So he has the chance.
I mean, we've seen some incredible starts here.
The race that I went to round this track, 2018, we had four guys all going neck and neck into Les Combes, and I wouldn't rule out something similar at least between the top three this weekend on Sunday.
So yeah, that is everything we learned from qualifying, guys.
Russell a bit disappointing.
Bit of a get out of jail free card effectively because of the fact he starts in P3.
It's not a bad place to start.
So just to clarify as well when it comes to the running order, I believe it will be the following: Kimi Antonelli in P1, Max Verstappen in P2, third place George Russell, fourth Leclerc, fifth Hamilton, sixth Oscar Piastri, seventh Lynn Vlad, eighth Bortoleto, ninth Liam Lawson, 10th Pierre Gasly, 11th Franco Colapinto, and then I believe L- then I believe Norris will be in P12.
That's where he'll move down to.
And then everybody else moves up behind, and you get Hajjar right at the very Hope that makes sense.
Hope that is all correct.
Of course, it's rather confusing how F1 applies these penalties in terms of the order of which they're applied.
But yeah, let me know your thoughts about all this in the comments below, guys.
Who's winning tomorrow?
Honestly, honestly, I've got a weird feeling about Verstappen, but I do think that Antonelli has enough.
I mean, he was so quick in qualifying.
I think over a race distance he should get the victory, but of course it's also weather dependent as well.
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See you soon for much more content on the world of Formula 1 here on thef1chronicle.com and Formula Reports.
